Richard Osman reveals surprise 'ban' on Thursday Murder Club books

He’s been rubbing shoulders with Dame Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Sir Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie on the set of the movie adaptation of his 2020 novel The Thursday Murder Club – and now Richard Osman is hoping to bring his newest book series to the screen. Don't expect any hardcore additions though.

The bestselling author, TV presenter and producer has written We Solve Murders, the first in the new series introducing ex-cop Steve Wheeler and his daughter-in-law Amy. She's a private security officer, who join forces with her father-in-law to chase a money-smuggling kingpin and associated assassins, who are bumping off social media influencers acting as couriers for his business.

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Richard reveals that there's one thing banned from his books though - he’ll be continuing to avoid graphic violence and sex in his novels.

“That stuff doesn’t interest me. I’m fascinated by evil and I’m fascinated by the violence that people do and the underworld, and the things that we don’t see in what goes on behind the doors in ordinary streets.

“I’m fascinated about the we’re living in culturally – we’re constantly told that we hate each other, that no-one can ever agree on anything – but I really believe in the power of kind, strong people and in the power of empathy. That’s at the heart of all my books.”

The book also features a “Jackie Collins-esque” character in the fictional Rosie D’Antonio, a glamorous world-famous novelist with a lust for excitement and more than a hint of mischief, who has been targeted by a Russian oligarch who’s not taken kindly to being featured in one of her novels.

It’s a cat-and-mouse game that takes them around the world, as Amy, who has been put in charge of protecting Rosie, also finds herself the target of a killer.

“It was supposed to be a duo, but I came up with Rosie and thought, oh that’s fun, Jackie Collins-esque. I love Rosie so much, she’s so full of mischief, always got a Martini in her hand and a real back story of Hollywood and success. So it has turned from a two-hander to a three-hander. So she is coming back,” says Richard.

He says he didn’t base Rosie on the late, great, real blockbuster author Jackie Collins, though. “You always have a little starting point. You could have a Jackie Collins-like character, but that character then reveals themselves to you and becomes a very different person. I never base [my characters] on anyone in the real world.”

The 53 year old cosy crime king, whose four novels in The Thursday Murder Club series have sold 10 million copies globally, says he can definitely see the new series of books being adapted for screen – and that a deal is in the works but he cannot reveal details at this stage.

“As a series, it would be a lot of fun. The whole idea is that they are detectives, so there’s more scope for what they can do. I think we’ll definitely be doing a screen adaptation. I think it’s more likely to be TV, but then everything’s TV these days.”

As well as his writing career (he gave up co-presenting Pointless in 2022 to devote more time to his books), he presents the Two quiz show Richard Osman’s House Of Games and co-hosts the podcast The Rest Is Entertainment with Marina Hyde. He lives with his wife, Ingrid Oliver, in west London, where he writes his blockbuster novels.

We were surprised to hear about how little he’s involved in the movie adaptation of The Thursday Murder Club.

“It’s lovely and they invite me on set and I’m so thrilled and incredibly excited, but I haven’t written it, I don’t have to get involved in it at all. I’ve given it to brilliant people and, like everyone else, I’m incredibly excited to see what they come up with.”

Richard did add that the movie business does still hold a sense of glam.

“It’s very funny, it’s very peculiar. I love being on set and they all have little carts and stuff like that and it’s all very Hollywood, but I’m aware I’m taking a holiday in that world and they are doing the hard work.”

And of course the exotic locations - St Lucia, South Carolina and Dubai - don’t hurt either. “I thought I could just write about places I’ve already been. I needed them to go somewhere exotic and I’d been to St Lucia a couple of years ago, which I love, so I wrote about it.”

And will we see more from him? “I’ve hopefully got another 20 or 30 years of writing books and at some point you have to introduce people to a new world and new characters. I love that first quartet of The Thursday Murder Club books, but I felt they probably needed a year off.

“It was time to find new people and a book that is a bit more globetrotting, where there’s more gunfire and helicopters than there might be in The Thursday Murder Club.

is published by Viking, priced £22. Available now.

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