When manuscripts of Richard Osman’s first novel were doing the rounds with publishers, there was an early sign that things were going to turn out well. “I knew people were reading The Thursday Murder Club and liking it, but I was wondering how much of this is because of who I am: a guy from the TV,” Osman tells me. “Then Amblin—Steven Spielberg’s company—came in and said, ‘We love this book. We want to buy the rights.’ Spielberg had no idea who I was—he doesn’t watch House of Games. That was the first time I was able to relax and go, OK, I’m a writer. This story and these characters work,’ because if Spielberg likes them, other people might like them too. It was a real seal of approval, which gave me a lot of confidence.”
If anyone had told the young Osman, growing up in Sussex, he’d be hanging out and collaborating with the creator of some of his favourite films (Jaws, Indiana Jones…), he might not have believed them. But after decades of working in TV with Hat Trick Productions and Endemol, and as the creator and co-host of quiz show Pointless and the host of Richard Osman’s House of Games, he’s not so easily dazzled these days. “Ten years ago, I went on A Question Of Sport and played a frame of snooker against Steve Davis. Having a frame of snooker against Steve Davis was the thing that if you told the 10-year-old me that that was going to happen, I would’ve lost my mind,” he laughs. “I love Spielberg and I’m grateful to him for making the movie. But he’s no Steve Davis.”
Osman’s novel The Thursday Murder Club, about a gang of four people at a luxury retirement home solving crimes, secured a seven-figure deal at auction. Since the first was published in 2020, the four books in the series have sold 10m copies, seven million in the UK. The TTMC film, expected in 2025, will star Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie, David Tennant and Richard E Grant, with Chris Columbus, who made Home Alone, Mrs Doubtfire and two Harry Potter films, in the director’s chair. It’s safe to say this won’t be a low-key indie film.
Osman is happy to write for the masses. “My job in television and books is I like to entertain as many people as possible. I like to write something great but that’s accessible. My heart, my sensibility and my soul are always in the mainstream. It’s definitely true that the world of books is not a meritocracy—great books go unread. But if you look at bestseller lists, there are truths there that critics would like you to ignore.”
Now living in west London, Osman, 53, has a fifth TTMC book underway. His latest novel, We Solve Murders, is the first in a new murder mystery series. It’s more “globe-trotting”, but cut from the same cloth, with a retired detective called in to help his daughter-in-law, a bodyguard, to hunt down a killer. “I liked the idea of a ‘found family’, the people we end up loving and relying on even though we’re not related by blood,” he says.
Osman may explore other types of writing in future. “I love that I can tell the story I want through crime fiction, but maybe one day I’ll do a terribly ambitious and disappointing literary novel,” he says. I read a book like A Month in the Country by JL Carr, and a bit of me thinks, ‘Maybe one day you could write something like that.’ Maybe I’ll scratch that itch.”
He is also working on a theatre production of The Thursday Murder Club. Along with the film, books, House of Games and The Rest is Entertainment, the podcast he co-hosts with Marina Hyde, it seems a good time to be Osman. “I’ve had 30 years in the creative industries,” he says. “I’ve had enough failures to now have a hit and be grateful for it.”
Osman has predicted that AI could have a massive impact on the arts, potentially replacing writers and other creatives. Today, he’s more sanguine. “AI will bring many good things, such as if you want to write a letter to your electricity company or things we don’t want to do. But there’s a level in journalism, film, music, books and television where we like the artisanal hand. The individual original human mind still has a future. That’s good news, isn’t it?”
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman is available now (Viking, Hardback, £22). Osman’s four The Thursday Murder Club novels are also available.
