Angela Lansbury got 12 seasons and some TV movies out of Murder She Wrote in her later years. Agatha Christie is still revered for her murder mysteries, still being made and remade on the big and small screens. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its sequel gained lots of mileage for senior stars. So when Richard Osman’s best seller, The Thursday Murder Club, about a real murder in a glorious English retirement home ripe to be solved by the senior residents’ own cold case murders club, came along followed by three more big sellers and a fifth on its way this Fall, it was a natural as the first project in the new deal between Netflix and Amblin Entertainment. The book sold 15 million copies, was UK’s best seller of the year, and printed in 46 languages.
With Chris Columbus (Harry Potter, Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire) signed on as director/producer, the only thing that could screw this up would be getting the wrong cast. Well, uh, that didn’t happen because here you have Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie, the cream of actors of a certain age, all still working steadily and an instant draw for audiences, no doubt about it.
The adaptation of the very long novel is well handled by Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote (although the former is said to do the heavy lifting here), and gives each of the stars a chance to shine. Elizabeth (MIrren) now is the leader of the club after her best friend who was its driving force became ill and now sits in a coma in hospice ( her beloved husband a constant presence grieving by her side). In tribute to her Elizabeth keeps the club vital, quite coy about her own past which is a bit of a mystery itself but might involve secret agenting – or so we can speculate. She does seem to be the brains of the operation. Then there is Ron (Brosnan) a former Union head and football fan who delivers many of the film’s comic moments, and Ibrahim (Kingsley), a somewhat quiet but dedicated psychiatrist with good instincts about human nature. New to the group to fill the vacancy is Joyce (Imrie), a delightful live wire eager to participate.
The cold case they are trying to solve quickly goes to the wayside when Tony Curran (Geoff Bell), the owner of their retirement home Coopers Chase is murdered, and his somewhat villainous co-owner Ian Ventham (David Tennant having a lot of fun in the role) who was brought in by Tony, gets the reins with plans to kick the residents out and turn the place into apartments for profit. There are many suspects in the murder cropping up here and there of course, and the bulk of the film finds our intrepid quartet examining every possibility just like Jessica Fletcher did each Sunday.
The supporting cast includes the terrific Naomi Ackie as a police inspector Donna De Freitas who is quite a bit sharper than her food loving boss, Detective Hudson (Daniel Mays). Jonathan Pryce is Stephen, Elizabeth’s husband who loves to play chess with staffer Bogdan Jankowski (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), and sadly also is in the early stages of dementia, a plot point which adds a lot of poignancy to his relationship with his wife. Tom Ellis (Jason Ritchie) is the superstar boxer son of Ron who in coming to visit his dad also becomes a suspect somehow, as well as an attraction among the residents. There’s more intrigue when Bobby Tanner shows up later in the proceedings played by veteran Richard E. Grant.
The format allows Columbus to deftly mix comedy with the morbid knowledge that these dedicated seniors are obsessed with death, even as they themselves aren’t that far from it. In fact there is a cemetery on the premises to add another layer to that reality. But this group is not one to sit around waiting to expire, they have much interest in life and everything it still has to offer at any age.
There is no question in my mind that this is built to be the gift that keeps on giving to Netflix in a series of movies, hopefully with the same cast. The premise may be predictable (there is even a snarky reference to an old NBC senior mystery The Snoop Sisters that Elizabeth quickly dismisses), so yes we have seen it all before, but as comfort food it still works and is perfect for streaming. And with Mirren, Brosnan, Kingsley, and Imrie you’ve got golden age royalty.
Producers are Jennifer Todd and Columbus.
Title: The Thursday Murder Club
Distributor: Netflix
Release Date: August 28, 2025 – Streaming
Director: Chris Columbus
Screenplay: Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote
Cast: Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie, Naomi Ackie, Daniel
Mays, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Tom Ellis, Jonathan Pryce, David Tennant, Paul Freeman, Geoff
Bell, Richard E. Grant, Ingrid Oliver
Rating: PG13
Running Time: 1 hour and 58 minutes
