Richard Osman has hinted that he wasn't overly enthused about the film adaptation of his hit book The Thursday Murder Club.
The television host and author released his cosy murder mystery novel in 2020 and it quickly became a bestseller, selling over 15 million copies worldwide. The author went on to create a five-part novel series with four subsequent books, with the most recent, The Impossible Fortune, released in 2025.
Adaptation with an all-star cast
It was also in 2025 that the first of his book series was adapted for a Netflix film with an all-star cast including Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie with David Tennant - and directed by Christopher Columbus. Despite the A-list cast the movie was met with lukewarm reviews, with Richard even suggesting he wasn't overwhelmed by the broad-humoured adaptation.
“I can’t really talk about the film very much,” he told The Times in a recent interview. “Let’s not let it detain us,” the 55-year-old added. After being pressed he added: “It was only one book. The other books I would like to adapt myself.”
Mixed reviews for the film
The book follows a group of four elderly people living in a luxury retirement home, who meet every Thursday to discuss cold cases. But things take a rather more serious turn for the amateur sleuths when a murder takes place in their midst. It is a heart-warming story that shines a light on the plight of the elderly and is chock full of Britishisms and references that cemented itself in the present day.
The film adaptation of this beloved story was met with mixed reviews, averaging a 77% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, and an audience score of 54%.
For The Express, George Simpson said in a review: "This is an enjoyable but largely forgettable piece of fluff."
"Perhaps due to these books’ extraordinary popularity,...such an adaptation was inevitable. Except no one could have foreseen that the result would be quite so thin and perfunctory; so nefariously lazy; so fiendishly pleased with itself," said Robbie Collin for The Telegraph.
"The movie is charming and quaint, but doesn’t quite elicit the same response as the simply marvellous book," said Laura Harman for Metro.
Lauren Morris argued for The Mirror: "For all its star power, the Thursday Murder Club isn’t without its faults. While some plot lines were overexplained and drawn out, other big reveals felt rushed and anticlimactic - particularly towards the end of the film."
Streaming success and future adaptations
While it may not have exactly struck a strong chord it did top streaming charts on Netflix upon its release and was one of the top watched films on the platform not just in the UK, but across the world.
So it seems that any other adaptations of his books will be coming directly from Richard.
