So long, Mrs White: Cluedo's housekeeper is no more

If the only thing you like more than Chris Evans presenting Top Gear is a game of Cluedo in which you get to play as Mrs White, this will truly have been a devastating few days. Following suspiciously swiftly on the heels of Evans' departure, Cluedo's long-serving housekeeper is being replaced.

The first major cast change to Cluedo since 1949 sees Mrs White swapped out for Dr Orchid, a young biologist with a PhD in plant toxicology. She was expelled from private school in Switzerland due to a poisoning incident, according to Cluedo lore (which is definitely a real thing), and she was then home schooled by Mrs White herself. The betrayal of it.

Craig Wilkins, Marketing Director for Hasbro in the UK & Ireland, explained that "it was a difficult decision to say goodbye to Mrs. White - but after 70 years of suspicious activity, we decided that one of the characters had to go." Conspiracy theories abound, but it's worth noting that the game has changed over the years in various subtle ways before all this. The original design had a cast of ten, one of whom would be selected as the victim at the start of each game. Mrs White was originally a nurse, and the original arsenal of murder weapons included a syringe.

Cluedo is brilliant, incidentally, and it's even better if you play it without taking notes. My strange old mother never allowed us to take notes in Cluedo when we were kids, and she was probably onto something. For once.