{"id":1974271,"date":"2025-08-22T12:04:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T12:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=1974271"},"modified":"2025-08-22T12:04:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T12:04:22","slug":"the-thursday-murder-club-review-a-gorgeous-best-of-british-romp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/the-thursday-murder-club-review-a-gorgeous-best-of-british-romp\/","title":{"rendered":"The Thursday Murder Club review: a gorgeous, best-of-British romp"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There is something profoundly joyous about watching The Thursday Murder Club. Is it the comforting sense of Chris Columbus\u2019 directorial hand on the wheel? The warm, yellow haze that seems to suffuse everything?<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s just the feeling of watching Helen Mirren<\/a>, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie work their magic, amid a rogue\u2019s gallery of excellent British<\/a> actors. It says something when David Tennant\u2019s name isn\u2019t even given top billing \u2013 or indeed Richard E. Grant\u2019s.<\/p>\n

This adaptation of Richard Osman<\/a>\u2019s best-selling book, of course, tells the story of a group of four pensioners who live in the implausibly glam retirement home of Cooper\u2019s Chase.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s proper American idealism syndrome going on here \u2013 that, or all the inhabitants are stinking rich. There are llamas frolicking on the lawn, life drawing classes, all the interiors seem to have been decorated by Kit Kemp, and the home itself looks like Downton Abbey.<\/p>\n

\"<\/span><\/div>\n

(Giles Keyte\/Netflix)<\/p>\n

But even rich pensioners get bored in paradise, and so Elizabeth (Mirren), Ron (Brosnan) and Ibrahim (Kingsley) spend their time in the parlour solving cold cases. In the episode\u2019s first ten minutes, Joyce (Celia Imrie, eyes twinkling overtime) comes to join them. Conveniently, she\u2019s an ex-trauma nurse, seemingly blessed with the ability to diagnose people instantly.<\/p>\n

Which is just as well, as soon enough they have an actual crime to solve: one of Cooper\u2019s Chase\u2019s owners, Tony, is brutally offed in his own house. With the remaining owner, Ian Ventham (David Tennant, who is cultivating a nice line in snarling sociopaths) keen to flog the retirement home off and sell it for flats, the team gather in an attempt to find out whodunnit and set things to rights.<\/p>\n

What unfolds over the next two hours is a best-of-British romp. All the hallmarks of a cosy crime film are there: inept police officers (Daniel Mays, excellent as ever), a last-minute twist, lots of cake and an extended scene towards the end where the entire crime is explained. Thrice over, actually, as there end up being three crimes.<\/p>\n

Mirren\u2019s steely Elizabeth, in particular, is a joy to watch, as she repeatedly hoodwinks or manipulates people into complying with her wishes. In-jokes abound: \u201cwhat are you wearing?\u201d her husband, Stephen (Jonathan Pryce) deadpans at one point, where Elizabeth emerges in disguise, wearing an old tartan skirt and headscarf. \u201cYou look like the Queen!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"<\/span><\/div>\n

(Giles Keyte\/Netflix)<\/p>\n

That same kind of humour is liberally sprinkled throughout the film, along with Thomas Newman\u2019s sentimental score \u2013 even if the dialogue veers towards the clunky at times. \u201cGive your statins a fighting chance!\u201d Ibrahim yelps at one point as Ron digs into yet more cake; the next minute, Ron is darkening his teeth with shoe polish and pretending to be a hopeless drunkard to get answers out of the police.<\/p>\n

Some of the more complex and sad moments from Osman\u2019s books \u2013 the terrible inevitability of ageing, for instance \u2013 have been dumbed down and simplified. And while the last few minutes (alright, the last twenty minutes) dips towards the overly saccharine, the film has built up enough goodwill that it\u2019s bearable. This is a celebration of life, and isn\u2019t it fun watching pensioners run rings around the rest of us.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeamwork,\u201d Mirren says at one point, when asked about the secret to the club\u2019s success. \u201cPeople of our generation still remember how valuable that can be.\u201d Maybe there\u2019s something in that.<\/p>\n

In cinemas now; on Netflix<\/a> from August 28<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source uk.movies.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is something profoundly joyous about watching The Thursday Murder Club. Is it the comforting sense of Chris Columbus\u2019 directorial hand on the wheel? The warm, yellow haze that seems to suffuse everything? Perhaps it\u2019s just the feeling of watching Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie work their magic, amid a rogue\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1974272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[336479,339308,311206,316196,352219,320001,339309],"class_list":["post-1974271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-ben-kingsley","tag-celia-imrie","tag-david-tennant","tag-helen-mirren","tag-pensioners","tag-pierce-brosnan","tag-richard-osman"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/The-Thursday-Murder-Club-review-a-gorgeous-best-of-British-romp.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1974271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1974272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1974271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1974271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1974271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}