Richard Osman, the creator of BBC One’s Pointless and author of the Thursday Murder Club series, has revealed he was approached by MI6 while at Cambridge University but ultimately rejected. ‘I would have been terrible,’ he says. ‘I’m too tall, not bright enough, and if I have a secret, I tell everybody. You could not find a worse spy.’ He also jokes that he cannot tell a lie.
Osman, 52, describes himself as ‘testosterone-y’ and ‘fairly alpha’, despite a gentle exterior. He loves sports, particularly snooker, and admits to enjoying statistics. ‘I’m an alpha introvert,’ he explains. His Thursday Murder Club books have sold five million copies and grossed more than £25 million, making him the biggest new fiction author of the decade. The series has been optioned by Steven Spielberg, and he has signed a separate crime series for Netflix.
The fourth book in the series, The Last Devil to Die, is published next week. Osman says his characters – Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron – represent quarters of his own brain. ‘I’m most Ibrahim,’ he says, referring to the data-loving, practical character. He has also signed a new four-book deal with Penguin, reportedly worth more than £10 million, though only two will be Thursday Murder Club titles.
Osman began his career in television after graduating in 1992, working at Planet 24 and Hat Trick Productions, where he wrote for Whose Line Is It Anyway? and Have I Got News For You. He later became a master of TV formats. Despite his success, he remains self-deprecating: ‘I’m still available, by the way, if MI6 read this. I could be useful, because no one is going to suspect me now.’
