Richard Osman is hoping his next TV adaptation will delight his millions of fans (Image: Conor O’Leary)
Bestselling author Richard Osman says he will be “more involved” in the Netflix adaptation of his We Solve Murders series. The first book in his record-breaking Thursday Murder Club series, which have made him the biggest selling fiction writer of the decade, was turned into a film starring Dame Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Celia Imrie and Sir Ben Kingsley, with Steven Spielberg its producer.
It was released by the streamer last summer to lacklustre reviews from fans of the books, who felt it lacked their charm despite it’s star-studded cast. The author chose not to be closely involved with the film, saying it was best to let movie experts run with his creation.
But after earlier this month confirming that his new book series, We Solve Murders, was in development with the streaming giant for a TV drama, he is planning to take a different approach this time around.
From left-right, Celia Imrie, Sir Ben Kingsley, Dame Helen Mirren, and Pierce Brosnan (Image: AP)
During a special guest appearance at Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival in Stirling on Friday night he reveals: “We Solve Murders is with Netflix as well and we are going to develop that as a series rather than a film. I will be more involved with that than I was with the film.
“Right from the beginning with the Thursday Murder Club film I thought you have to trust people, it was Spielberg and all that, he knows what he is doing. I won’t have a word said against the gang (of actors), they were amazing, but I feel on this next one I want to be more involved to make sure the book is represented a little bit more.”
We Solve Murders was published in 2024 and introduced readers to retired detective Steve Wheeler, a widower who lives with his cat Trouble in a New Forest village that he never wants to leave, and his daughter-in-law Amy, a bodyguard for billionaires who jets around the world.
When she is framed for murder while protecting best-selling author Rosie D’Antonio on her private island Steve comes to her aid.
The second instalment of this, We Chase Shadows, is out now and sees the trio running a detective agency called We Solve Murders and investigating the murder of a bodyguard in a private villa in the Italian hills with a threatening note left on the body.
Steve’s best friend Tony, who he does a pub quiz with every Tuesday, is the unofficial fourth member of the team.
The Pointless and House Of Games creator, 55, says without realising it his childhood passion for Enid Blyton’s classic children’s novels The Famous Five partly inspired his new series.
The Thursday Murder Club (L to R) Dame Helen Mirren, Sir Ben Kingsley, Pierce Brosnan, Celia Imrie (Image: Giles Keyte/Netflix. All Rights Reserved)
“The books I absolutely loved when I was a kid were The Famous Five, I was always going to the library to get them,” he says. “And then someone pointed out to me, ‘you know that The Famous Five is two males, two females and a dog, and that they solve crimes? You have literally just re-written The Famous Five.’ So Enid Blyton clearly knew what she was doing.”
Osman admits to starting We Solve Murders for the freedom of his detective team investigating murders in different locations around the world, which has more longevity than The Thursday Murder Club books set in a retirement village in Sussex.
He says: “In writing it does not do to plan too far ahead as readers will tell you what you should do. It does not do to plan for 10 Thursday Murder Club books if after two people say, ‘we’re ok, thanks’. After doing four of them I felt I should do something new. The first Thursday Murder Club was fine as it was about a body being found at the retirement village, then the second was dealing with the aftermath of that. By the fourth one you’re thinking ‘there’s another corpse here?’
“I want to be writing for another 40 or so years, and I am not going to another 40 Thursday Murder Club books, so that is where the new series comes in.”
Rosie D’Antonio, who paid to set up the detective agency investigating only murders in the second instalment, was inspired by the late romance novelist Jackie Collins.
Osman says: “By the end of writing the first book I thought ‘oh my god, Rosie D’Antonio is unbelievable, I love you so much’. So I had my new group of friends and they are completely different to my old group of friends. They speak in different ways and more importantly they talk to each other in different ways. So then very quickly I had my new series and my new people.
Richard Osman and his mother Brenda Wright, whose retirement village inspired Thursday Murder Club (Image: -)
“But the good thing is that when I sat down a month ago to write the first chapter of my next book I was ‘Joyce! Ah, great!’ So I get to hang out with her in alternate years now.”
He plans to switch between the Thursday Murder Club and We Solve Murders series, but also revealed he has an “American idea” he wants to do at some stage. The two series allow him to explore themes likes family, male friendships and grief: “I am very interested in family, I am very interested in my three new characters, like I am with those in the Thursday Murder Club.
“There are so many people that we fundamentally disagree with, but we love them anyway, and that is what I am interested in. But the last thing you do with people you disagree with is solve murders.”
He adds: “With the mum having passed away there is not the woman holding together the males in the family for Steve and his son Adam. Amy tries to do this. The relationship between fathers and sons interests me because I did not have a father.
“When you have a long-running series you hold back some things and at some point I will probably explore their relationship more, which will be difficult for me because I don’t have direct experience of it to fall back on. But then I will got to write some real about not having had that relationship.”
His latest book also seems to contain some thinly-veiled digs at the state of modern publishing, with poor sales figures for Rosie’s latest book triggering her new publicist Elspeth to suggest she writes about dragons having sex for her next one or tries to get on Hot Ones on TikTok, an actual show where guests eat increasingly hot chicken wings.
But Osman objected this to, saying “how dare you!” He adds: “That is me thinking ‘what would upset Rosie?’ Over the years she has had a relationship with Warren Beatty, she has loads of money, she has got a helicopter, so what is it that might get to her, or how can we peel away a layer?
“But I am also fascinated with this new world of TikTok. The biggest stars in the world now go on Hot Ones, which is just them eating chicken wings, and that is the biggest show in the world, bigger than Parkinson used to be. If I could go on Hot Ones I would cut off an arm!”
We Chase Shadows book cover image (Image: -)
He goes on: “There is a myth now that when you write a book publishers will ask you how many social media followers you have. Maybe that was the case 10 years ago but now your social media following doesn’t matter at all.
“This week there was a test case, which was James Patterson, one of the world’a biggest selling authors has written a book with Mr Beast, and Mr Beast, if you don’t know him, is the biggest YouTube star in the world. He has more than 500 million followers, that is one in 16 of every single person on this planet.
“To his followers for the last few weeks he’s been telling them about his book, saying if you buy a copy of this book and read it carefully enough you could win US $1million. And last week it sold less than the K Pop Sticker Dolly Dressing book. I don’t think people should try and write for the market. If you are going to spend two to three years writing a book, write what you want to read.”
His plans for two book series in alternate years will keep him busy so Osman has stepped down from hosting quiz show House Of Games, with actor Michael Sheen stepping into his huge shoes.
He says: “I wanted to give it up because it takes so much time, I mean you record about 100 episodes a year. I thought I want to able to give It up, if only we can find someone good, and then Michael Sheen said he would do it and everyone was like, ‘this is even better’. I announced I was going at the same time and it was like, ‘okay’.”
*We Chase Shadows by Richard Osman (hardback, £25) is out now. For more details on Scotland’s leading book festival which continues today (SUN) visit bloodyscotland.com
