The Thursday Murder Club Is on the Case
Richard Osman’s novel is coming to the screen — and it has a killer cast.
BY JOHN DILILLO
JULY 12, 2024


Retirement homes are supposed to be for, well, retirement. But rest, relaxation, and pinochle aren’t in the cards for one set of seniors. This group of unlikely sleuths has uncovered a murder case, and they’re willing to risk their lives to solve it. They’re The Thursday Murder Club, and they’re coming to Netflix in a new movie. Based on the bestselling novel by Richard Osman, this is a whodunit with teeth — false ones, of course.

Read on for a more thorough investigation of the new Netflix/Amblin coproduction, written and directed by Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone filmmaker Chris Columbus. And keep an eye out the lounge window for The Thursday Murder Club.

What is The Thursday Murder Club about?
The story follows a group of friends in a retirement home who gather to solve murders for fun but find themselves caught in a real case.

Sir Ben Kingsley, Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, Celia Imrie, and author Richard Osman.
GILES-KEYTE
Who’s in the cast of The Thursday Murder Club?
The cast of The Thursday Murder Club includes:

Helen Mirren (The Queen, Gosford Park)
Pierce Brosnan (GoldenEye, The Out-Laws)
Sir Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More)
Celia Imrie (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Diplomat)
David Tennant (Doctor Who, Inside Man)
Daniel Mays (Atonement, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget)
Naomi Ackie (Lady Macbeth, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker)
Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes, The Crown)
Henry Lloyd-Hughes (Anna Karenina, Chevalier)
Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Withnail and I)
Tom Ellis (Lucifer, Players)
Geoff Bell (RocknRolla, Kingsman: The Secret Service)
Paul Freeman (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Hot Fuzz)
Sarah Niles (Ted Lasso, The Sandman)
Ingrid Oliver (Doctor Who; Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging)

Within hours of Biden announcing his decision, the committee tried to make the handoff to Harris official — submitting an amended filing to the FEC changing its name to “Harris for President.”
Several campaign finance lawyers aligned with Republicans argue that the campaign does not have legal authority to do that — and that the maneuver is all but certain to be challenged before the FEC or in a court of law.

Charlie Spies, a prominent GOP campaign finance lawyer, said that both Biden and Harris would have to have been officially nominated by the Democratic Party at its convention next month before any kind of handoff could occur. In that situation, he noted, a provision in campaign finance law allows a vice-presidential nominee to take control of the campaign’s depository if the presidential nominee withdraws.

“Biden can’t transfer his money to Harris because it was raised under his own name, and there is no legal mechanism for it to have been raised jointly with Harris before they were their party’s nominees,” said Spies, who advised the Republican National Committee before stepping down from that role earlier this year.