Lewis Episode The Dead of Winter And Its Connections To the Board Game Cluedo (Known as Clue in North America)

Hello everyone and welcome to a new post. I hope you are well mentally and physically.

Since my live stream of the Lewis episode The Dead of Winter I have had quite a few queries asking about its connections to the board game Cluedo (known as Clue in North America).

So, here is a breakdown of those connections and hopefully I have caught them all. Like so many of Russell Lewis episodes in the Morse Universe he likes to play games. The episode The Dead of Winter was no different. I would have mentioned all this in my book but I had to excise quite a bit to keep the book at a manageable length.

Strangely enough there is board game with the title Dead of Winter. It’s a survival game.

The characters in the game are as follows;

Miss Scarlett (the second t was dropped in North American versions after 1963) is red.
Rev. Green (Mr. Green in North America) is green.
Colonel Mustard is yellow.
Professor Plum is purple.
Mrs. Peacock is blue.
Mrs. White is white.

The weapons are;

Candlestick
Dagger (Knife in some North American editions)
Lead Pipe (called lead piping in earlier UK editions; the early tokens were made out of actual lead and therefore posed a risk of lead poisoning)
Revolver (first depicted in the UK as a Dreyse M1907 semi-automatic pistol,[14] and in North America as a Colt M1911 pistol.)
Rope
Wrench (depicted as a monkey wrench in North American editions; and an open-ended spanner in some traditional UK versions).

SPOILERS

Let’s start with the character Miss Scarlett. In the episode we have the character Scarlett Mortmaigne.

Scarlett is played by Camilla Arfwedson.

Then we have Reverend Green (Mr Green in the USA). In the episode we have a Father Jasper played by Hugh O’Conor.

The gemstone Jasper can be described by the opaque colours of Chalcedony, such as dark or mottled green.

Next up we have Colonel Mustard. In the episode we have the character of Philip Coleman ably played by Nathaniel Parker in the episode.

Coleman’s mustard is made by the English manufacturer in Norwich.

So we have Philip Coleman (who is a retired Lieutenant Colonel) and we have the character Colonel Mustard.

Up next is the character from the board game, Professor Plum. In the episode we have a Professor Pelham.

In the world of cricket in the early part of the 20th century there was player and an administrator known as Sir Pelham Francis Warner, MBE, affectionately and better known as Plum Warner.

In the Murdoch Mysteries TV series there is a character who appears late in the series called Pelham ‘Plum’ Kimberley played by Jake Raymond.

Thanks to Peter Neill who wrote in the comments section, “Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, author of the Bertie Wooster stories was also known as Plum.” Thank you Peter.

Next we have Mrs Peacock who is the blue player piece in the board game. In the episode we have a Selina Mortmaigne played by Juliet Aubrey.

This connection is a little harder to solve. Selina originate’s from the Greek Selēnē which is derived from selēnē (the moon). Moon, blue – Blue Moon? Or is it alluding to the British TV series based on the board game. In that series Jack Peacock, the husband to Mrs Peacock, was played by Lewis Collins (best known as Bodie in the British series The Professionals). Too tenuous? Probably.

Then we have Francis Woodville played by Stella Gonet.

Elizabeth Woodville was queen of England as the spouse of King Edward IV. She was known as the White Queen. So we have the connection to the board game, the character Mrs. White.

Then we have the murder victim in the board game. Dr. Black in the UK edition and “Mr. Boddy” in North American versions. In the episode the victim is a Dr Black.

Dr Black was killed by being hit over the head with a candlestick. In the board game Dr Black lived at Tudor Manor and in the episode Dr Black lives at Tudor Crescent.

The candlestick is one of the weapons used in the board games.

Hopkiss uses a gun to threaten Lewis and does kill Philip Coleman.

The gun is of course a weapon in the board game.

The game board itself is split into various rooms within Tudor Manor; Kitchen, Ballroom, Conservatory, Dining Room, Cellar, Billiard Room, Library, Lounge, Hall and Study. We see many of these rooms within the episode.

If you see any other connections to the board game within the episode let me know in the comments section. If you enjoyed the post leave a like below. Thank you

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Author: Chris Sullivan

Up until a few years ago I was my mum's full time carer. She died in, 2020, of Covid. At the moment I am attempting to write a novel.

7 thoughts

  1. Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, author of the Bertie Wooster stories was also known as Plum.

  2. This may be obvious common knowledge already, but this episode has a bunch of elements lining up with Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. The part where Hooper tells Hathaway the house is a great big ship of a place, “you never saw anything like it” is straight out of the opening of that novel. And the family name is almost the same as that in Waugh’s novel: the Marchmains.

  3. Great post. Does anyone know the fim location of Dr Black’s house in Tudor Crescent, Kidlington?

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