Celia Imrie completes the main cast of the film adaptation of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club. More here.
One wonders quite when Richard Osman found the time to write a bestselling cosy crime series in between being the resident expert on Pointless (with a laptop that it turns out was never actually switched on) and the chairman of House Of Games.
However, The Thursday Murder Club quickly became a literary phenomenon, with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment snapping up the rights before it has even been published, and it stayed atop the bestseller charts for months following its release.
The Thursday Murder Club follows the residents of a retirement home who find themselves attempting to the solve the case of a deceased property developer. It was reported last month that Dame Helen Mirren will play the role of Elizabeth Best, a former spy, Pierce Brosnan will play Ron Ritchie, a former union activist and Sir Kingsley will play Ibrahim Arif, an ex-psychiatrist.
Osman confirmed on Twitter that the other main character, Joyce, will be played by Celia Imrie, stalwart of Victoria Wood’s work and also a successful novelist in her own right, with her next, Meet Me At Rainbow Corner due for publication on the 4th July.
Originally, Ol Parker was set to write and direct, but he was replaced by Chris Columbus, of Home Alone and Harry Potter fame.
Osman has written three further books in the series so far – The Man Who Died Twice (2021), The Bullet That Missed (2022) and The Last Devil To Die (2023) – the fifth book is due to be released in 2025. The first book in his next crime series, We Solve Murders, will be published in September.
Now that all the main cast have been confirmed, we’d expect this one to go in front of the cameras very soon, we’ll keep you updated as we hear more.
