Chat with the cast of Cluedo 2

Blackpool Gazette

Actors Ellie Leach and Jason Durr speak to celeb reporter Aimee Seddon ahead of bringing Cluedo 2 to the Blackpool Grand Theatre

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm digital reporter Amy Seddon, and Cluedo 2 was on at the Blackpool Grand Theatre between

00:06Tuesday October the 15th and Saturday October the 19th. Before its arrival, I got to chat

00:13to two of its biggest stars, Coronation Street actress and Strictly champion Ellie Leitch

00:18and casualty actor Jason Derr. Take a look at an extract of our interview in the following

00:23clip. How are you feeling about bringing Cluedo to Blackpool?

00:26I'm so excited to come to Blackpool. Sorry, Jason, I had to jump in there. Blackpool for

00:33me holds so many memories. I used to go there all the time when I was a kid, and I think

00:40that it's just such a fun place to be, especially when you've kind of grown up going there too,

00:46and everyone's just so lovely. Obviously, you're up north. Can't beat it. You just can't

00:52beat it. I'm really excited to be in Blackpool, and I'm also excited to be in Blackpool with

00:57the rest of the cast. You know, we've got an amazing cast, and we have so much fun doing

01:02this show, and I think that Blackpool is the perfect place to bring Cluedo. It feels very

01:08much like a Blackpool kind of show. Yeah, yeah, it does. It's a lot of fun, you know,

01:14and we've toured up and down the country, and the reaction has been amazing, but I'm

01:19I'm really, really excited to be in Blackpool.

01:22No, it's one of those plays that, you know, that this country just seems to love whodunits,

01:27and we're doing... Our whodunit is slightly different because it's a whodunit, but it's

01:30also a comedy, so we get the joy of just making people laugh every night, and believe you

01:36me, we make each other laugh on stage a lot as well, so there's a lot of naughtiness going

01:39on there, but it's, you know, all those phenomenal characters and iconic characters from the

01:45game, Cluedo, the board game, we get a chance to bring them to life and breathe air into

01:50their bones and soul and all that kind of stuff, so... And the audiences seem to love

01:55it, and they really get on board, and there's nothing better than sort of having a really,

02:01really good laugh, but at the same time trying to guess who, you know, in this particular

02:05version, who did it with what and when, you know. Yeah, the audiences, like Ellie said,

02:10we've been really, really lucky. They've absolutely loved it.

02:15And then you two are playing Colonel Mustard and Miss Scarlet, so for people who live on

02:18Ruroc, what are those characters like, and do you guys relate to them?

02:23After you, Elle.

02:24Well, obviously, like you say, people... The characters are so iconic, and I think even

02:30though you haven't... If you haven't played Cluedo before, which I'm sure that there's

02:34many people in the country who haven't, me being one of them, but I think that even if

02:42you haven't played it, you know the characters, you know kind of what the concept of the game

02:46is, and yeah, I'm loving playing Miss Scarlet. I think that she's great. The word that I

02:52always use is charming. She's very charming, but also I think that all of the characters

02:58are maybe not who they pretend to be, and I think that's why the story works so well,

03:03is because you're constantly keeping the audience guessing. So obviously, as the body count

03:09mounts, people are like, I wonder who it was, and you're kind of getting like different

03:13parts of the story, you know, you're seeing different characters' interactions with each

03:17other, and how their relationships kind of blossom from that. So yeah, it's been great

03:25to play Miss Scarlet, and obviously the show is set in the 60s, so we've got 60s costumes

03:30and music, and yeah, it's very, very fun. I'm loving trotting around in a little red

03:35dress.

03:36And I'm not just saying this, you know, Ellie is absolutely fantastic, and we all get an

03:41opportunity to play what is, you know, they're all iconic characters, whether it's Reverend

03:47Green, Colonel Mustard that I get to play, Miss Scarlet, Mrs White, we've got a couple

03:52of new characters in there as well, and you know, we're very fortunate to have a really

04:00good team behind us. So whether it's Mark Bell, the director who directed the play that

04:06goes wrong, and Lawrence Marks and Morris Gran, who wrote things like Goodnight Sweetheart,

04:13and they're just a fantastic team of people around us, and they're all very, very funny.

04:18So we've been given a sort of license to bring all those iconic characters to life, and as

04:26Ellie said, it's set in the 1960s, so lots of 60s music, 60s costumes. It's just really

04:33funny. It's just funny. And you know, what's wrong with doing a whodunit that's funny?

04:38It's brilliant. And we've been very humbled by the fact that we've gone around the country

04:43playing to packed theatres, which is great, and there's nothing like, you know, Ellie

04:49and I have been in front of the camera for over 50 years, to get back on stage and get

04:54that immediate reaction that people love is just gold dust, really.

05:00And for both of you then, the people that haven't got tickets yet for Cluedo, why should

05:04they pick up some of those remaining ones?

05:07Well, it's just a fantastic show. It's a lot of fun. Come and see it. And you know, in

05:13the sort of world that we live in at the moment, which can be slightly challenging at times,

05:19I think, this is a really, really great evening's entertainment, pure entertainment. You'll

05:24laugh a lot. There's sort of physical humour. There's slapstick. It's a gag a minute. And

05:30you will walk out of the theatre with a smile on your face, and that's never a bad thing.

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