The Thursday Murder Club review: a cosy caper with a star cast
Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie solve murders in a Kent retirement village. Chris Columbus’s Netflix take on Richard Osman is warm, starry and harmless. Nothing more, nothing less.
Reviewed, edited and approved by Editor-in-chief Daniel Sköld · Updated 24 October 2026
Contents
There are two kinds of people in Britain: those who have read Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club novels, and those who have been given one for Christmas and are still meaning to get round to it. The first book was the first debut ever to take the Christmas number one spot, in 2020, and three sequels followed in as many years. A film was always going to happen. The only question was whether it would be any good, or just a very expensive Sunday afternoon.
Having watched it on a weeknight, with a cup of tea and no regrets, I can say it’s somewhere in between. Think of it as a well-made sponge cake: not the most exciting thing you’ll eat this year, but hard to dislike.
Premiere2025-08-22
GenreComedy, Mystery, Crime
CastHelen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie
Directed byChris Columbus
Running time118 min
Rated12A
Watch onNetflix
66%
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Pensioners with a taste for murder
The set-up is lovely. Coopers Chase is a smart retirement village in Kent, all manicured lawns and well-stocked jigsaw cupboards. A handful of residents meet every Thursday to pore over old, unsolved murder cases for fun, the way other people play bridge. Then a real killing happens on their doorstep, and the hobby suddenly becomes a job. Their amateur sleuthing runs straight into the local police, who are about as pleased as you’d expect.
That’s as much plot as you need. The film is billed as a comic crime caper and it sticks to that brief. Nobody is going to need therapy afterwards. It runs 118 minutes and carries a 12A certificate, so it’s safe to put on with the grandchildren in the room, or with your mother-in-law, who’ll correct you on every difference from the book.
A cast list that reads like an awards ceremony
Chris Columbus directs. This is the man behind Home Alone, Mrs Doubtfire and the first two Harry Potter films, so he knows how to make a crowd-pleaser and has no interest in making anything else. In front of the camera is a line-up most British dramas would sell a kidney for: Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie as the club, with David Tennant and Jonathan Pryce in support.
Mirren plays Elizabeth, the group’s steely ringleader, whose past is pointedly vague and who clearly knows more about surveillance than a retired anything should. Brosnan plays Ron, a bolshie old union man, and it’s a joy to watch a former James Bond play a man who would happily heckle James Bond. Pryce plays Stephen, Elizabeth’s husband, who is living with dementia. Those scenes give the film a quiet weight it badly needs, and they’re handled with more care than you might expect from a Netflix comedy.
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What works, and what doesn’t
The best thing about the film is that it takes its older characters seriously without being solemn about them. They aren’t the punchline. They aren’t waiting to die in a beige lounge, and they aren’t there to dispense wisdom to a confused young person. They’re nosy, clever and competitive, and frankly better company than most people half their age. For anyone in Midcent’s age bracket, that’s quietly cheering. It’s nice to see a film suggest that life past 70 can involve something other than hip replacements and arguing with the council.
The mystery is the excuse. The real pleasure is watching four old pros prove that retirement is just another word for having time to meddle.
The trouble is that the mystery itself is a bit thin. Osman’s books get by on voice: the asides, the gossip, the gentle mockery of middle England. Some of that charm gets lost on screen. The plotting is functional rather than clever, and at nearly two hours it sags in the middle, where a sharper edit would have helped. It’s also relentlessly cosy. If you like your crime with some danger in it, this is the cinematic equivalent of a heated blanket. And for a film set in Kent, it can feel oddly like a postcard of England made for people who’ve never been. Everything is so picturesque you half expect a Morris dancer to turn up at the crime scene.
Still, the cast carry it. Mirren could play this sort of brisk authority in her sleep, but she doesn’t, and she and Brosnan spark off each other nicely. Kingsley and Imrie are a delight, even if the script gives them less to do than they deserve.
What the critics say
The reviews have been warm rather than glowing. In the Guardian, Peter Bradshaw found “a fair bit to enjoy here”, and Metacritic scores his review 60 out of 100. In The Hollywood Reporter, Caryn James called it “as cozy as an Agatha Christie novel” and a “modestly entertaining film”. She also admitted it is uncool and full of stock tropes, but that it doesn’t pretend otherwise. That’s about right.
Some American critics were more enthusiastic. Collider called it “delightfully charming”, and Paste praised the way it gives older characters stories of their own. The A.V. Club summed up the general mood: it’s “more affable than laugh-out-loud funny”. That would also do nicely as a description of Pierce Brosnan in his seventies.
Where to watch it in the UK
The Thursday Murder Club premiered on 22 August 2025 and is streaming on Netflix in the UK. It comes with any Netflix subscription, so there’s no extra rental fee, which is a mercy given how many of us already pay for more streaming services than we can name. It’s the obvious pick for a wet weekend afternoon, especially if someone else in the house has read all the books and has been waiting for an excuse.
Verdict
The Thursday Murder Club won’t change your life, and it won’t keep you guessing for long. But it’s warm, handsomely cast and refreshingly kind about getting older, with Mirren and Brosnan clearly enjoying themselves. It’s ideal for Osman fans, Sunday-night crime lovers and anyone who wants two hours of comfort viewing without having to think too hard. Three stars, and a fourth for the cast’s sheer star power.
Ashley Isaacs picks what's worth your evening – film, TV, streaming, music and books for men 45 and over with limited evenings and too many subscriptions. Reviews of what's new on Netflix, Prime Video, BBC iPlayer and the rest, crime dramas worth a weekend, and classics worth a second look. What's worth watching, what isn't, and where to find it in the UK.
One of Midcent's writers. Spotted something? Write to ashley@midcent.uk.
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