Get ready for a star-studded British mystery as The Thursday Murder Club’s trailer sets up what may be a delightful new crime saga!
There’s nothing like a good British murder mystery. Just look at BritBox and Acorn TV to see how many beloved British shows about murders in quaint towns have become popular. It’s just as great to see an adaptation of a top British mystery, and that’s what’s coming with The Thursday Murder Club.
The Thursday Murder Club is based on a book
The 2020 novel by Richard Osmon was an immediate hit when it was published. A quick bidding war for the film rights was won a,nd filming was underway in 2024 with Osman as a producer. It’s directed by Chris Columbus, no stranger to adapting beloved British novels as he directed the first two Harry Potter movies.
The director boasted to Country & Town House about the cast and the hopes of making the story work.
“I’m very proud of the film. It’s truly the best cast I’ve worked with since the Potter films. The picture is a faithful adaptation of the book, yet it will still be a thrilling, hilarious and moving experience for those who haven’t read the novel. It’s a very special movie and I can’t wait to share it with the world.”
The trailer has now hit and is promising a fantastic mystery dramedy with a spectacular cast!
See what’s coming for Thursday Murder Club
The trailer sets things up as in the fictional village of Farhaven in Kent, four residents of a retirement village come together: ex-spy Elizabeth Best (Helen Mirren), former union leader Ron Ritchie (Pierce Brosnan), retired psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif (Ben Kingsley) and ex-nurse Joyce Meadowcraft (Celia Imrie).
The quartet spends their Thursdays investigating cold cases in what they see as a bit of a lark and just a good way to kill time. This annoys the local cops who treat them as annoyances, but they keep it up. Things get serious when a murder occurs in Fairhaven and the Club challenges itself to solve a more recent murder. The stakes get higher when the Club falls under suspicion and now they have to clear their names.
The trailer shows the cast gelling wonderfully, not surprising given that all four actors are veterans of film and television. In fact, it’ll be a reunion of Mirren and Imrie, who co-starred in the film Calendar Girls.
We see some great clashes of the quartet with Mirren taking the lead and believable as a former spy who still has some of her old skills. Brosnan has the humor of James Bond, while Kingsley is a bit stuffy, and Imrie is the wide-eyed “newbie” of the group, more excited to find the truth.
The cast also includes Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays, David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce, Tom Ellis and Richard E. Grant, all of whom look to be having as much fun bouncing off the main stars. It’s clear this is following a new trend of big-screen whodunits begun by Rian Johnson’s Knives Out.
Given there are four more books in the series, Netflix is no doubt hoping for this to kick off a franchise. If the movie is as fun as the trailer, then Thursday Murder Club is going to be a blast of a mystery show no matter what day you watch it.
The Thursday Murder Club premieres in cinemas on Thrusday, Aug. 22 and on Netflix on Thursday, Aug. 28.