Britain’s love for the murder mystery

Where would Britain be without arguably its favourite story format – the murder mystery? Gone would be the enigma Sherlock Holmes and his faithful sidekick Watson. Agatha Christie’s famous characters, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, would never have graced the pages of tens of millions of books, and the various TV series and movies portraying clever detectives and their mind-boggling skills that always unearth the killer.

But it’s not just in books, novellas and screens. The murder mystery found itself in game format sixty years ago when a musician from Birmingham named Anthony E. Pratt was inspired and worked to create “Cluedo”, the atypical whodunnit board game. Iconic characters like Colonel Mustard, Miss Scarlett and Professor Plum now rank among the greatest villains in history, having taken part in millions of murders re-enacted in family homes over previous decades.

To celebrate the board game’s 60th anniversary, Barry Forshaw from the Crime Writer’s Association recounts the evolution of the murder mystery in this video and gives some great tips on how to write your own.
 
For more information visit hasbro.co.uk.