Why has Mrs White’s murder provoked such outrage?

At the bottom of the stairs lies Dr Black, his body already cooling as the murderer slinks away.

Now, however, he’s not the only victim. Mrs White is dead, too.

Cluedo has had an update, leading to controversy and free advertising, including this. Gone is the housekeeper, Mrs White. In is Dr Orchid, a scientist whose arrival coincides with a modern, youthful redesign for other characters.

It’s been fun to watch; just as entertaining as when Marathon became Snickers. Commentators, including me, blithely ignore constitutional upheaval to focus on changes to a board game they haven’t played for years. As I never tire of pointing out, humans are stupid.

In this case, the pointlessness of the outrage is particularly profound. This is not the first time that Cluedo has seen changes.

In the 1940s, when it was invented by a Mr Pratt, Cluedo had four more characters and three more weapons. Instead of Professor Plum getting homicidal with a candlestick, it might have been Mr Gold whacking Dr Black with a shillelagh.

Classic Cluedo was quickly established, then redesigned constantly for decades. It changed so often that, by 2003, there was a “nostalgia edition” that didn’t even represent the game’s original form.

Then there were the special revamps. Over the years, we’ve had Cluedo set in Edinburgh, Paris and on the Orient Express. The game’s cast was switched to new mysteries, or was replaced by other characters, like the Simpsons, Harry Potter and the Scooby Doo gang. (Scooby was Colonel Mustard.)

There was even a kids’ version of Cluedo that removed the actual murder, instead asking players to decide who ate a chocolate cake. And 2008’s Cluedo: Discover the Secrets went so far as to change the game’s rules, to widespread dismay, and four years later the changes were quietly dropped.

My point is, it doesn’t matter if you mess with a classic, whether it’s setting Hamlet in a tower block or that time Superman had a mullet. If something’s good enough, it’ll be back.

One day, we’ll see Mrs White again and I bet she’ll be feeling extra murderous.

It doesn’t matter if you mess with a classic