How Does Netflix’s <i>The Thursday Murder Club</i> Compare With Richard Osman’s Book?

Spoilers below.

In 2020, Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club was released, introducing the world to four residents of a high-end retirement home called Coopers Chase who use skills from their former careers to solve mysteries. There’s Elizabeth, the steely former spy; Joyce, a retired nurse who can consult on medical matters; Ibrahim, who uses his psychiatry training for insight into suspects; and Ron, a one-time union leader who brings a bit of grit to the group. Since then, Thursday Murder Club has expanded into a four-book series. (The Impossible Fortune, coming out in September, will be the fifth installment.) Netflix’s new film adaptation tells the story of the first group with a cast that includes Helen Mirren as Elizabeth, Celia Imrie as Joyce, Pierce Brosnan as Ron, and Ben Kingsley as Ibrahim.

Just like the book, the movie has the four sleuths solving a crime that hits close to their shared home. When real estate developer Tony Curran (Geoff Bell) is murdered, it puts the future of Coopers Chase at risk of being turned into luxury apartments by developer Ian Ventham (David Tennant). There are some key changes, however, between the page and the screen. Below, we take a closer look at some of the differences.

Pamela Dorman Books The Thursday Murder Club: A Novel (A Thursday Murder Club Mystery)

The Thursday Murder Club alternates between the perspectives of all four club members as well as several other characters, but Joyce’s first-person journal entries ground the whole story. In the film, Joyce’s entry into the club ignites the plot but she doesn’t narrate the story.

In the movie, Joyce hears a news report about Tony’s murder on the radio and rushes to tell the news everyone. In the book, however, Joyce learns about the crime when she gets a call from Elizabeth.

Helen Mirren, Celia Imrie.

In both the book and the movie, Elizabeth and Joyce go to the police station to speak with DC De Freitas (Naomi Ackie), under the pretense that Elizabeth’s bag has been stolen. Joyce tells a lie about Elizabeth being a nun so that she can avoiding speaking with a male officer.

What’s new in the movie is that Elizabeth prepares for the outing by replacing her usual chic styling with a long skirt, jacket and head scarf. Elizabeth’s husband Stephen (Jonathan Pryce) jokes that she looks like Queen Elizabeth. (Mirren played the monarch in the 2006 film The Queen and the 2015 Broadway production of The Audience.)

Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Helen Mirren.

Bogdan (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), a young man who works for Ian Ventham, talks to Elizabeth in the movie about having a sick mother back in Poland; but in the book his mother has died, he tells Elizabeth.

In the book, Joyce and Elizabeth take a train to London to visit Joyce’s daughter Joanna (Ingrid Oliver). Elizabeth has procured Ian Ventham’s financial records and wants Joanna, who has a finance job, to have a look. In the movie, Joanna reviews the records as well, but does it via email, which requires no trip to London.

In both the book and the movie Jason (Tom Ellis), Ron’s son and a famous retired boxer, is suspected of killing Tony Curran. But Jason’s background is a bit different in the adaptation. Much of his storyline in the film is about him feeling self-conscious that his father thinks less of him for appearing on reality TV competitions.

The speech that Ibrahim gives at the funeral for Penny and Ian was not in the book. It was written for the film but shortly before it was filmed. Director Chris Columbus revealed at a New York screening that Ben Kingsley shared some ideas for the eulogy, and the version he wrote ended up in the movie.