WORDS IAN FREER

Clockwise from main: Sleuths Joyce (Celia Imrie), Ron (Pierce Brosnan) and Ibrahim (Sir Ben Kingsley) flanked by PC Donna de Freitas (Naomi Ackie) and Ron’s son Jason (Tom Ellis);

DCI Chris Hudson (Daniel Mays) and Donna;

Stephen (Jonathan Pryce) and handyman Bogdan (Henry Lloyd-Hughes);

Bogdan with Elizabeth Best (Helen Mirren);

Death on the doorstep;

Mirren with director Chris Columbus.

It’s 27 August 2024, and Pierce Brosnan is clearly content in the twilight of a long day’s filming on The Thursday Murder Club. We are chatting in the beautiful gardens of Englefield House, an imposing, impressive mansion in Theale, west of Reading. You might have seen it in X-Men: First Class, playing Xavier Academy, but today the Estate is doubling for the Kent retirement village of Coopers Chase, the heart of Richard Osman’s senior-sleuths-solve-crimes bestseller. Brosnan plays retired trade union leader Ron Ritchie, who, along with formidable former spy Elizabeth Best (Helen Mirren), compassionate ex-psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif (Sir Ben Kingsley) and sweet-natured past nurse Joyce Meadowcroft (Celia Imrie), meet on Thursday nights to crack unsolved historical killings — until they are propelled into their first live case. Despite the fading light, it’s easy to see the twinkle in Brosnan’s eye.

“We don’t wish to be doing jigsaws, water aerobics or any of that nonsense,” he explains about the delicious premise. “We like the world of murder and death and mayhem.”

Earlier in the day, Empire has been watching Mirren’s Elizabeth, the gang’s no-nonsense leader, filming the climax of the movie, jumping out of a speeding police car and hot-footing it into the palatial estate. “It’s a little bit of action,” she explains. “The Fast & Furious in the middle of The Thursday Murder Club.” Director Chris Columbus, decked out in the filmmakers’ drip of black cap, plaid shirt and dark jeans, claps his hands like an enthusiastic audience member.

“It was the Mount Rushmore of the British Acting Giants,” he says, some months later, about his stacked cast. “I was intimidated, but once we started working on the script, the four of them together was just magical. They were all really looking forward to working together in a really exciting, almost youthful way.”

Watching over the proceedings from afar is Richard Osman, the reason we are all here. Previously best known as question-asker on tea-time fixtures Pointless and Richard Osman’s House Of Games, Osman’s pension-meets-tension crime debut ignited a ten-way publishing bidding war, ultimately selling for a seven-figure sum. It became an international book-buster which has all led him to a sunny day in the home counties, enjoying an A-list cast and director busting their ass off to bring his creations to the screen.