THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB (2025)
Four irrepressible retirees spend their time solving cold case murders for fun, but their casual sleuthing takes a thrilling turn when they find themselves with a real whodunit on their hands.
Based on Richard Osman’s book series of the same name, The Thursday Murder Club is a cosy British murder mystery that takes a dark turn as four pensioners investigate gangsters, people smuggling, cold cases, and more. All the ingredients that made the book such a success get lost in this Netflix adaptation, which comes across a little too sweet and gentle.
‘The Thursday Murder Club’ are a group of pensioners who spend every Thursday in their retirement facility trying to solve cold cases supplied by an ex-police officer friend. This morbid club is formed of fiery Elizabeth Best (Helen Mirren), observant former psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif (Ben Kingsley), stubborn former unionist Ron Ritchie (Pierce Brosnan), and pleasantly clueless nurse Joyce Meadowcroft (Celia Imrie).
The quartet are inhabitants of Coopers Chase, a lavish retirement facility that looks more like a stately home than somewhere professionals retire to. It’s a total fantasy version of retirement, with a fancy restaurant, art classes, and a huge apartment each. Their upmarket home is under threat as the land’s owner, evil Ian Ventham (David Tennant), wants to knock it down and replace it with luxury flats. Their plan to redevelop the plot soon goes awry, and the Thursday Murder Club can finally dump the cold cases and watch one very hot case unfold in front of them.
The crime at the centre of The Thursday Murder Club is investigated by local hapless DCI Chris Hudson (Daniel Mays) and ambitious WPC Donna de Freitas (Naomi Ackie). When the local coppers can’t get a grip on the crime, they turn to The Thursday Murder Club, who are always one step ahead of them. Whatever contact you need, whatever skill is required for the job, the Thursday Murder Club can help you. They’re like the X-Men for local crimes in retirement homes.
Screenwriters Katy Brand (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande) and Suzanne Heathcote adapt Osman’s debut 2020 novel with mixed success. The characters often point out the obvious to ensure the audience has not missed a single detail. It’s hard to know if this script is intentionally corny and trying to satirise the cosy crime drama, or if it’s just poorly written. Thankfully, Helen Mirren knows precisely how to deliver her exposition-heavy role with just enough tongue-in-cheek to sell it. The success is more mixed with the other cast members and characters.
Elizabeth is the standout role in the pack, partly due to Mirren but predominantly because she feels like the only character with a well-rounded personality. When she isn’t leading the misfit gang of the Thursday Murder Club, she’s caring for her husband Stephen (Jonathan Pryce), who has early dementia. Their dynamic is lovely, and it’s a shame Stephen doesn’t have more connection to the main plot.
Kingsley’s Ibrahim especially fades into the background, a travesty considering the actor’s immense comedic and serious acting talents. His character sort of bumbles through the plot, not adding much to the proceedings. Having a former psychiatrist on the team should have been a much bigger asset than how he’s used. Because he’s the only character without a daughter, son, or husband, he feels the least realised. You’ll likely walk away forgetting he was even in the film.
Pierce Brosnan’s socialist troublemaker plays a much bigger role in proceedings, and the actor milks every inch of dialogue possible. As the comedic character, Brosnan’s larger-than-life performance works well here. He has fun playing off his former boxer-cum-reality-TV star son Jason (Tom Ellis), failing to hide his disappointment that his once celebrated sportsman son has now resorted to appearing on Dancing on Ice after an injury ended his career early.
Celia Imrie’s Joyce acts as the audience’s eyes and ears. As a newbie to the social club and the retirement facility, she introduces us to the characters, their relationships, and why they felt the need to start the ultimate true crime club. Joyce is a pleasant, nondescript character who doesn’t feel like a real, well-rounded human. She was a nurse, which means she doesn’t mind the gory crime scene photos, and her baking is so good she can bribe anyone to talk. The script hasn’t bothered to dive much into her past, her life as a widow, and her relationship with her wealthy hedge fund boss daughter (Ingrid Oliver).
The crime itself is gripping enough. It’s hardly going to rival the great political thrillers or even a mid-Agatha Christie book, but it’s interesting enough to pass the time on a rainy afternoon. The club’s detective work takes them down some surprisingly dark routes, which just about stops the plot from strolling into Sunday ITV drama territory. Despite the runtime, the film doesn’t have enough time to give the crime the time it deserves to truly unfold.
A highlight comes when Elizabeth (with Helen Mirren distractingly and purposefully looking like the late Queen Elizabeth II) and Joyce decide to dress as the cliché old lady, get on the bus, and play up to everyone’s expectations. The Thursday Murder Club is at its best when it’s commenting on the world’s expectations of the retired community. While the characters like to declare themselves more than a pensioner and not just a group of doddery, nice, old people, the screenplay fails to show them actually doing anything other than cliché senior citizen pastimes.
Director Chris Columbus (Home Alone) hasn’t lost the Britishness of the source material for the streaming service. The writing is chock-full of references to niche television shows, UK pop culture, and historical moments and none of them are toned down to appease the American audience the cast will likely attract. In true British cinema, their world is far too idyllic to be recognisable to UK-based audiences. It’s a fake England that was created by Richard Curtis, where retirement homes have llamas on the front lawn and everyone is polite but a little bumbling.
With a two-hour-long runtime, The Thursday Murder Club feels unnecessarily long. The last half an hour speeds by, but the journey there can feel like a chore. It’s understandably challenging to cut down a lengthy book filled with so many characters, twists, and subplots. Osman’s book would have likely made a better mini-series, where the extended runtime would have allowed the audience to get to know the characters better, set up their world, and explore the many side characters and interpersonal dynamics.
The Thursday Murder Club is an innovative concept it’s hard to believe hasn’t been explored before. The crime genre often has an older audience, with pensioners lapping up the most violent Scandinavian noir. Having them play the central role in proceedings is a genius idea. It’s a shame Osman’s witty source materials have been sanitised down to become a pleasant whodunnit with a mostly wasted cast of acting legends.
USA | 2015 | 118 MINUTES | COLOUR | ENGLISH
Cast & Crew
director: Chris Columbus.
writers: Katy Brand & Suzanne Heathcote (based on the novel by Richard Osman).
starring: Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie, David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce, Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Richard E. Grant, Tom Ellis, Geoff Bell, Paul Freeman & Ingrid Oliver.
