The boardgame Cluedo had a special place in my family’s hearts growing up.

Once I’d got everything I could from Rings on your Fingers, Matching Pairs and Ludo, it was time to graduate to the heady heights of Monopoly and Cluedo.

And given my maiden name is Peacock, we of course found it oh so special that my mum had a starring role as one of the main characters.

Oh how as a family we laughed.

Around the table.

In the Dining Room.

Each and every time we accused Mrs Peacock of devastating murder.

Rock n roll legend Rick Black has not had a hit for years and he’s broke. But as he settles into his brand new, expensive home, Graveny Manor, Rick is desperate to revive his fading career and reclaim his fame and fortune…. and is prepared to do anything to get it back.

Excited to reveal his long-awaited comeback album, Rick has assembled his supermodel wife, The Honourable Emerald Peacock; his manager, Colonel Eugene Mustard, long-time roadie “Professor” Alex Plum, Annabel Scarlett his trusted interior designer and housekeeper Mrs White, who came with house and who knows all its secrets.

But there is still someone missing… Rick’s former song-writing partner “The Reverend” Hal Green,
disappeared mysteriously at the same time that Rick’s career went downhill and without him, has Rick still got it?
And where did that butler come from?

As the bodies pile up, our infamous colourful characters uncover each other’s mysteries and secrets, as they dart from room to room trying to escape the killer and survive the night.

The cast is headed up by Jason Durr as Colonel Mustard, with Jack Bennett (Wadsworth), Hannah Boyce (Mrs Peacock), Dawn Buckland (Mrs White), Liam Horrigan (Mr Black), Edward Howells (Professor Plum), Tiwai Muza (PC Silver) and Gabriel Paul (Reverend Green) with Kara Alberts-Turner, Audrey Anderson and Henry Lawes, and Ellie Leach, in her stage debut (Miss Scarlett).

And just like the game we all know and love, there’s a mansion, the study, library, billiard room etc.etc. and there’s a candlestick, rope, spanner, dagger and so forth and so on.

Characters dressed in their appropriate hues and with all in place, the dice was ready to roll on the second stage production of Cluedo (this time written by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, (Birds of A Feather, Dreamboats and Petticoats) and directed by Mark Bell – director of the first.

I’ll be honest, the first 30 minutes, I was somewhat squirming in my seat. I was wanting to enjoy the show more than I was actually enjoying the show.

I’m by nature a people-pleaser so whilst I prefer to accentuate the positives, leaving my regular reader to read between the lines of what’s not being said, I was wondering what approach I could take.

Could I spend the entire post waxing lyrical about my finger in the air approach to playing the board game when I was younger, coming out with wild guesses at every turn then acting hugely slighted when wrong, as though I knew something the rest of the family didn’t?

Then conclude it all with a link to the show website and call it a night?

Turns out someone did know something I didn’t know – that when this production warmed up and found its feet, the tide turned and the show found its flow from the half-hour mark.

Classic comedy references were abound, reaching mostly a demographic who grew up with Airplane (he’s got a drinking problem), Weekend at Bernie’s, Fawlty Towers…

We had some great slapstick, some seamlessly choreographed scene transitions and set-ups,

Stand-out for me was the ‘Butler’ Wadsworth (Jack Bennett) with a performance pitch-perfect and as camp as a classic British sitcom, and the cook, Mrs White (Dawn Buckland), who came in strong with the cakes, in the kitchen, with the double-entendres.

‘Hal Green’ (Gabriel Paul) commanded the stage from his entrance, providing some great laughs in his wake (and a few opportunities to throw in some Al Green one-liners). However, along with a back-story involving Vietnam, some of the relatively niche themes left me wondering at just who the target theatre-goer was, with gags often splitting the audience into those who got it and those who didn’t.

And granted the show was set in the 60s, and knowing moon-landing throwaways were era-appropriate, I was unsure whether alongside the visual comedy and frantic farce, there were enough layers to hit the mark for all theatre-goers (ages 8-80 as the marketing materials promise).

That said, fresh off from the dance floor (something, something murder, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Saltburn, something) fans of family-favourite Strictly will be thrilled to see Ellie Leach in the role of Miss Scarlett during the show’s Salford run, and it would have been remiss of the writers not to throw in a crowd-pleasing nod to a bit of ballroom, adding a touch of the popular culture zeitgeist into the mix.

And like all good art, theatre is subjective and a whodunnit often never disappoints. With bodies and clues dropping left, right and centre, and laughter and applause ramping up to match the increase in pace, I’d say the second half does enough to redeem the first.

Yours, the honorary manc, in the circle seats with the laptop.

Cluedo is on at The Lowry, Salford, until Saturday 6 April. For more details and tickets, visit https://thelowry.com/whats-on/cluedo-2-2/.