The Thursday Murder Club review: A safe and cosy whodunnit with touches of pathos
This highly anticipated adaptation of Richard Osman's best-seller is a little broad and cute – but risk has never been part of the business of cosy crime.
Giles Keyte/Netflix
- David Brown
★★★☆☆
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In a flash of self-awareness early on in this adaptation of Richard Osman’s best-seller The Thursday Murder Club, pensioner sleuth Joyce (Celia Imrie) is seen remarking to her cohort Elizabeth (Helen Mirren) that it feels like she’s in "one of those Sunday night dramas about two bright-eyed, feisty old lady detectives".
But the line also serves as a way of pre-empting any criticism that could be headed in the direction of this cute whodunnit about a band of amateur mystery-solvers living in a plush retirement complex.
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For what we have here is a tale that, were it to be deprived of its stellar cast, would fit snugly in the weekend schedules alongside the murderous yet somehow comforting goings-on in the likes of St Mary Mead or Midsomer.
Joyce, for instance, is all about the chintz, with pastel-pink living quarters that could have been interior designed by Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter, while fellow club member Ron (Pierce Brosnan) is the cuddliest trade unionist to have ever burned charcoal in a brazier.
Tom Ellis as Jason and Pierce Brosnan as Ron Ritchie in The Thursday Murder Club. Giles Keyte/Netflix
His best pal is psychiatrist Ibrahim (Ben Kingsley), a man so buttoned-up he’s become one with his bowtie and tweed. And chief clue-finder is the redoubtable Elizabeth, an ex-spook as scrubbed and stylish as Jackson Lamb is filthy and slovenly.
All these main players probing the untimely death of a property developer are as exemplary as you’d expect, though Brosnan’s (London?) accent does wander more quickly than any resident in an old folks’ home ever could.
But as a piece of filmmaking, The Thursday Murder Club is cleanly rather than cinematically directed by Chris Columbus, to the extent that it feels, as Joyce suggests, like its story ought to have been told across several episodes of a series rather than in a single movie.
Henry Lloyd-Hughes as Bogdan and Helen Mirren as Elizabeth in The Thursday Murder Club Netflix
What doesn’t help matters are the names in the supporting cast, many of whom are offering variations on parts they’ve played previously on TV. So, David Tennant gives us a spin on his cad from Rivals, Jonathan Pryce is essentially a facsimile of his dementia-diagnosed former spy on Slow Horses, and Daniel Mays appears as a clone of his harassed Magpie Murders cop.
David Tennant as Ian Ventham and Henry Lloyd-Hughes as Bogdan inThe Thursday Murder Club Netflix
But risk has never been part of the business of cosy crime, as what viewers crave in projects such as this is reassurance, along with enviably picturesque environs and the odd credible twist.
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Here, some of the complexities of the original novel have been streamlined or dropped, a move that benefits some (Naomi Ackie’s PC Donna De Freitas) but shortchanges others (Henry Lloyd-Hughes’s Polish handyman Bogdan).
However, the verdant Coopers Chase, where the gang all reside, is almost Downton-level vast (how are they all affording it?) and its green-and-pleasant scenery is surely destined to be envied by the US export market.
The Thursday Murder Club. Netflix
Yet this is not quite a land of lost content, as retrieving the movie from the realm of total make believe are some touches of pathos which, although not as potent as on the page, are still affecting.
These moments may be fleeting, but the odd rumination on belonging and mortality add some welcome emotional shades to what can, at times, be a broad take on the source material.
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Still, a couple of hours spent in the company of the key quartet is never less than comradely, and with a bookshelf full of subsequent cases just waiting to be dramatised, it's unlikely that we've seen the last of our feisty famous four.
Authors
David BrownDeputy Previews Editor, Radio Times
David Brown is Deputy Previews Editor at Radio Times, with a particular interest in crime drama and fantasy TV. He has appeared as a contributor on BBC News, Sky News and Radio 4’s Front Row and has had work published in the Guardian, the Sunday Times and the i newspaper. He has also worked as a writer and editorial consultant on the National Television Awards, as well as several documentaries profiling the likes of Lenny Henry, Billy Connolly and Take That.
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