Thursday Murder Club (series)

Last updated
The Thursday Murder Club

Author Richard Osman
Country United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Genre Crime fiction, detective fiction, murder mystery, cozy mystery
Publisher Viking Press
Published3 September 2020-present
No. of books4

The Thursday Murder Club is a murder mystery book series by television presenter and author Richard Osman.

Contents

Background

The first instalment, entitled The Thursday Murder Club , was Osman's fiction writing debut, and was published in September 2020. The book received great critical and public acclaim, and was a great financial success, becoming the No. 1 bestselling Christmas title in the UK, a first for a debut novelist. [1] The subsequent entries in the series have been similarly well received, with The Last Devil To Die ending up as No.1 on the New York Times Best Seller list on 8 October 2023. [2]

Character overview

The titular club consists of four elderly pensioners who reside in Cooper's Chase, a retirement village located in the fictional Kent village of Fairhaven. The club was initially formed to merely discuss unsolved cases, but the four invariably come to be involved in investigating actual local murders.

The group consists of former spy Elizabeth Best, union leader Ron Ritchie, nurse Joyce Meadowcroft and psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif. [3]

Books in the series

  1. The Thursday Murder Club (2020)
  2. The Man Who Died Twice (2021)
  3. The Bullet That Missed (2022)
  4. The Last Devil To Die (2023)

In August 2024, Osman announced he had started work on the fifth book in the series, which is planned for a 2025 release. [4]

Adaptations

Film

A film adaptation of the first book is in production for Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, with a script from Katy Brand, and Chris Columbus on board as director. The film features an ensemble cast led by Helen Mirren as Elizabeth, Pierce Brosnan as Ron, Ben Kingsley as Ibrahim and Celia Imrie as Joyce. The film will be released on Netflix.

Theatre

On 24 May 2024, Osman announced on the podcast The Rest Is Entertainment that he was working on a Thursday Murder Club stage play with co-writer Tom Basden. Like with the film, Steven Spielberg and Amblin will produce. Instead of adapting one of the books, the play will feature an original story. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Spielberg</span> American filmmaker (born 1946)

Steven Allan Spielberg is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is the most commercially successful director in film history. He is the recipient of many accolades, including three Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards as well as the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1995, the Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2001, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2006, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2009 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. Seven of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

<i>Duel</i> (1971 film) 1971 action thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg

Duel is a 1971 American road action-thriller television film directed by Steven Spielberg. It centers on a traveling salesman David Mann driving his car through rural California to meet a client. However, he finds himself chased and terrorized by the mostly unseen driver of a semi-truck. The screenplay by Richard Matheson adapts his own short story of the same name, published in the April 1971 issue of Playboy, and based on an encounter on November 22, 1963, when a trucker dangerously cut him off on a California freeway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Touchstone Pictures</span> Former American film label of Walt Disney Pictures

Touchstone Pictures was an American film production label of Walt Disney Studios, founded and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Feature films released under the Touchstone label were produced and financed by Walt Disney Studios, and featured more mature themes targeted at adult audiences than typical Walt Disney Pictures films. As such, Touchstone was merely a pseudonym label for the studio and did not exist as a distinct business operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Koepp</span> American screenwriter (born 1963)

David Koepp is an American screenwriter and director. He is the ninth most successful screenwriter of all time in terms of U.S. box office receipts with a total gross of over $2.3 billion. Koepp has achieved both critical and commercial success in a wide variety of genres: thriller, science fiction, comedy, action, drama, crime, superhero, horror, adventure, and fantasy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amblin Entertainment</span> American film production company

Amblin' Entertainment, Inc., formerly named Amblin Productions, is an American film production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg, and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1980. Its headquarters are located in Bungalow 477 of the Universal Studios backlot in Universal City, California. It distributes all of the films from Amblin Partners under the Amblin Entertainment banner.

<i>Amazing Stories</i> (1985 TV series) American anthology television series

Amazing Stories is an American anthology television series created by Steven Spielberg, that originally ran on NBC in the United States from September 29, 1985, to April 10, 1987.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Spielberg filmography</span> Filmography of American filmmaker Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg is an American director, producer and writer. He is considered one of the founding pioneers of the New Hollywood era, as well as one of the most popular directors and producers in film history. He is also one of the co-founders of Amblin Entertainment, DreamWorks Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Osman</span> English TV presenter and writer (born 1970)

Richard Thomas Osman is an English television presenter, producer, novelist, and comedian. He is the creator and former co-presenter of the BBC One television quiz show Pointless. He has presented the BBC Two quiz shows Two Tribes and Richard Osman's House of Games, and been a team captain on the comedy panel shows Insert Name Here and The Fake News Show. He has also made appearances on British panel shows including Would I Lie To You? and QI.

DreamWorks Pictures is an American film studio and distribution label of Amblin Partners. It was originally founded on October 12, 1994, as a live-action film studio by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen, of which they owned 72%. The studio formerly distributed its own and third-party films. It has produced or distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses of more than $100 million each.

<i>The BFG</i> (2016 film) 2016 film by Steven Spielberg

The BFG is a 2016 fantasy adventure film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison and based on Roald Dahl's 1982 novel of the same name. The film stars Mark Rylance, Ruby Barnhill, Penelope Wilton, Jemaine Clement, Rebecca Hall, Rafe Spall, and Bill Hader. In the film, a ten-year-old orphaned girl named Sophie befriends a benevolent giant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurent Bouzereau</span> French director and filmmaker

Laurent Bouzereau is a French-American documentary filmmaker, producer, and author.

Amblin Partners American entertainment company

Storyteller Distribution Co., LLC, doing business as Amblin Partners, LLC., is an American independent entertainment production company. It develops and produces films under the Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks Pictures banners, as well as television series through Amblin Television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amblin Television</span> Television production division of Amblin Partners

Storyteller TV Distribution Co., LLC, doing business as Amblin Television, is the television production division of Amblin Partners. It was established in 1984 by Amblin Entertainment as a small-screen production arm for Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories anthology series for NBC. The company has produced television series, including the first three seasons of Bull, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, SeaQuest DSV, ER, Falling Skies, and The Americans.

<i>Masters of the Air</i> 2024 American war drama miniseries

Masters of the Air is a 2024 American war drama miniseries created by John Shiban and John Orloff for Apple TV+. It is based on the 2007 book of the same name by Donald L. Miller and follows the actions of the 100th Bomb Group, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber unit in the Eighth Air Force in eastern England during World War II. The series serves as a companion to Band of Brothers (2001) and The Pacific (2010). It is the first series to be produced by Apple Studios in cooperation with Playtone and Amblin Television and stars Austin Butler, Callum Turner and Anthony Boyle as part of an ensemble cast. The series consists of nine episodes.

<i>The Thursday Murder Club</i> 2020 crime novel by Richard Osman

The Thursday Murder Club is a 2020 murder mystery novel, the debut novel by British television presenter Richard Osman. It is the first installment in his "Thursday Murder Club" series. It was published on 3 September 2020 by Viking Press, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House, and also released in 2020 as an audiobook, read by Lesley Manville.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mickey Fisher (screenwriter)</span> American writer and producer

Mickey Fisher is an American television and film screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the creator of the CBS science fiction series Extant.

<i>The Man Who Died Twice</i> (novel) 2021 novel by Richard Osman

The Man Who Died Twice is a murder mystery written by the British comedian and presenter Richard Osman. It is the sequel to The Thursday Murder Club and was published by Penguin Random House's Viking Press in September 2021 and as an audiobook, read by Lesley Manville, in November 2021.

The Thursday Murder Club is an upcoming British crime comedy film directed by Chris Columbus from a screenplay he co-wrote with Katy Brand, based on the 2020 novel by Richard Osman. The film features an ensemble cast that includes 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, Sarah Niles and Osman’s real life wife Ingrid Oliver. Its plot follows a group of elderly amateur sleuths who attempt to solve a murder.

<i>James</i> (novel) 2024 book by Percival Everett

James is a novel by author Percival Everett published by Doubleday in 2024. The novel is a re-imagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain but told from the perspective of Huckleberry's friend on his travels, Jim, who is an escaped slave. The novel won the 2024 Kirkus Prize and the National Book Award for Fiction.

References

  1. Flood, Alison (22 December 2020). "Richard Osman becomes first debut author to land Christmas No 1". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 December 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2024. UK Top 10 bestsellers, week ending 19 December 2020 / 1. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman 134,514
  2. "Combined Print & E-Book Fiction". The New York Times. 8 October 2023. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
  3. "Meet the characters from The Thursday Murder Club". Penguin Books Australia. Retrieved August 8, 2024.
  4. Cormack, Morgan (5 August 2024). "Richard Osman shares exciting update for Thursday Murder Club franchise". Radio Times .
  5. Sayce, Rebecca (23 May 2024). "Richard Osman confirms a Thursday Murder Club theatre production is in the works". Digital Spy .