SCHOOLBOY Scott Brookes Gardiner is hoping to win a plum role in a stage version of murder mystery board game Cluedo.

Scott, 12, of Oxclose, Washington, Wearside, will discover on Wednesday if he will play Professor Plum in the one-off performance in London, on October 25.

Six children will be chosen to take the parts of the game's characters, Miss Scarlett, the Reverend Green, Colonel Mustard, Mrs White, Mrs Peacock and the professor.

The object of Cluedo is for amateur sleuths to unravel a series of clues which lead them to the murderer.

Scott admits he has only recently swotted up on the game.

The Oxclose Community School pupil hopes he can land the role so he can launch a career in entertainment.

A member of the Youth Theatre, at Washington Arts Centre, he narrowly missed out on a part in the BBC television series Badger.

He said: "I recorded a poem on tape and sent it off to the Cluedo judges and they must have thought it was good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I win.

"I have been interested in acting since an early age. I have been playing piano since I was five, and I started drama lessons when I was seven.

"I'm in the school orchestra and I want to be involved in the arts when I am older."

If Scott is successful he will also win a full acting session, evening dinner and a trip to a London West End play