A Killer Cast
It’s rare that a film’s cast alone can fill us with such gleeful anticipation, but The Thursday Murder Club is not your average screen fare. Arriving on Netflix on 28 August, this adaptation of Richard Osman’s bestselling debut novel unites four titans of British film and television – Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Sir Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie – as an unlikely band of sleuths living in a sleepy English retirement village.
Mirren leads as Elizabeth, a former intelligence agent with a piercing gaze and sharper mind. Brosnan plays Ron, once a firebrand trade unionist, now still delightfully cantankerous. Kingsley is the reserved and thoughtful ex-psychiatrist Ibrahim, while Imrie brings warmth and mischief to her role as the ever-curious former nurse, Joyce. Together, they promise a kind of lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry. Expect humour, poignancy and whip-smart repartee.
Director Chris Columbus says, ‘This is the finest cast I've worked with since Potter. They’re just so incredibly well-prepared, and it’s because they do everything. They do theater, they do television, they do film, and they’ve developed those sorts of muscles.’
Cosy Crime With Meat on the Bones
At a glance, The Thursday Murder Club might be mistaken for mere Sunday-afternoon comfort viewing. Yes, it delivers in the cosy-crime department (rolling hills, charming cottages, a murder to be solved over tea and biscuits). But under Chris Columbus’s direction, it also captures the heart of Osman’s original novel: an exploration of ageing, resilience and finding purpose in unlikely friendships.
The plot centres on a group of retirees who meet weekly to pore over cold cases for intellectual kicks – until, inevitably, a real-life murder lands in their lap. What follows is a delicious mix of gentle wit and gripping mystery, with just enough darkness to cut through the cosiness. It’s Agatha Christie by way of Alan Bennett.
Hollywood’s Embrace of the British Village
It is no small thing that this quintessentially British story has caught the eye of Hollywood heavyweights. Initially optioned by none other than Steven Spielberg, the project eventually found its way to Netflix, with Columbus (of Harry Potter and Mrs Doubtfire fame) directing and co-writing the script alongside Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote.
In their hands, the film retains its English soul – helped along by sweeping shots of sun-dappled lawns, bookish interiors, and the gentle pace of village life (and of course, what lurk beneath the well-kept lawns and peace and quiet).
A Supporting Cast to Die For
The core four are bolstered by a glittering supporting cast that reads like a who’s who of British acting royalty. Expect appearances from David Tennant, Naomi Ackie, Jonathan Pryce, Richard E. Grant, Tom Ellis, and Daniel Mays. Subplots of romance, regret, and late-life rediscovery through the main murder arc are go.
Why We’re Counting Down the Days
There are many reasons to be excited. Firstly, the resurgence of ‘cosy crime’ in a streaming landscape dominated by bleak true-crime sagas and neon-lit thrillers feels like a welcome reset (we feel a Sunday afternoon spent watching Joan Hickson Miss Marples coming on). Secondly, the fact that The Thursday Murder Club places older protagonists front and centre without making them twinkly bit parts: these are complex, sharp and whip-smart characters.
There’s also the tantalising potential for a long-running series. Osman’s books already span four instalments (with a fifth due next year), meaning there’s a rich well of material for Netflix to draw from – should audiences fall, as we expect they will, for this gang of amateur detectives.
