Richard Osman addresses Thursday Murder Club film disappointment: ‘I can’t really talk about it’

Richard Osman’s hugely popular The Thursday Murder Club books have made him one of the UK’s best-selling fiction authors – but despite a starry cast, Netflix’s attempt at adapting the first novel in the series fell flat.

The former Pointless star has now addressed the disappointment, admitting: “I can’t really talk about the film very much.”

“Let’s not let it detain us,” he tells The Times. The publication adds that “when pressed”, the 55-year-old continued: “It was only one book. The other books I would like to adapt myself.”

With Harry Potter director Chris Columbus at the helm, and the central quartet of cold case-obsessed retirees played by Dame Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Sir Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie, The Thursday Murder Club debuted on the streaming platform and in selected cinemas last year.

The film was written by comedian Katy Brand and screenwriter Suzanne Heathcote, whose credits include Killing Eve and Fear The Walking Dead.

The film controversially deviated significantly from the source material, most notably altering the trajectory of the much-loved Polish handyman Bogdan (played by Henry Lloyd-Hughes), and completely removing a number of other popular characters.

Unfortunately, the adaptation was met with lukewarm reviews, with The Independent’s critic Clarisse Loughrey awarding it a dismal two stars.

“The whole affair is so flimsy you’ll lose nothing from watching it on an iPad while cooking dinner,” she wrote.

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The Thursday Murder Club initially performed well on Netflix – with the streaming service claiming it had 24.7 million views in its first four days – but the film failed to top the global most-watched chart, and dropped to fifth on Netflix’s most-watched film chart within a week of debuting.

And Osman has insisted he enjoyed working on the project, telling The Times it was “a lot of fun meeting [producer Steven] Spielberg, Helen, Pierce and everyone else. Really cool.”

While a number of the cast members have said they’d love to return, a sequel is still yet to be confirmed.

The first Thursday Murder Club book was released in 2020 and according to publisher Penguin, almost 700,000 copies were sold in the first four months in the UK alone.

Another four books in the series have followed and Osman has so far sold more than 17 million books worldwide – making him the UK’s second most-popular author, beaten only by children’s author Julia Donaldson.

Osman, who recently stepped away from House of Games, last year debuted the first in a new series, We Solve Murders, which will be followed by We Chase Shadows next month.