The millions of fans of Richard Osman’s bestselling crime capers won’t need telling, but The Thursday Murder Club is about to land on Netflix (and the odd cinema). Adapted from the first book in the series, first published in 2020, it’s an origin story that revolves around a small band of crime-solving retirees who aren’t ready to go out to pasture and the grisly murders they set about investigating.
Directed by Chris Columbus, the movie’s quintessentially English backdrop is another bit of immersive world-building from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone filmmaker and his team, including production designer James Merifield (The Deep Blue Sea, Mary Queen of Scots).
Merifield talks through how the often deadly world of Coopers Chase retirement home and its picturesque surrounds came to be.
What is The Thursday Murder Club about?
A gang of pensioners at a fictional retirement home called Coopers Chase gather every Thursday to work on solving a cold case involving a woman murdered in the 1970s. Elizabeth Best (Helen Mirren), the Thursday Murder Club’s de facto leader, is an ex-MI6 agent with spycraft skills and a pin-sharp mind she conceals beneath a doddery persona when the situation requires it. Ron Ritchie is a still-crusading ex-union boss played with a twinkle by Pierce Brosnan, while Ben Kingsley is former psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif who puts his acumen to use scrutinising suspects.
The movie opens with Celia Imrie’s former nurse Joyce Meadowcraft joining the posse just in time for a fresh murder to shock the tight-knit community. Builder Tony Curran (Geoff Bell) is bumped off and the list of suspects for DCI Chris Hudson (Daniel Mays) and constable Donna De Freitas (Naomi Ackie) – and the Thursday Murder Club – to work through takes in everyone from slimeball property developer Ian Ventham (David Tennant), Polish builder Bogdan (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), and even Ron’s ex-boxer son Jason (Tom Ellis).
Where was The Thursday Murder Club filmed?
In Osman’s novel, set in Kent, the story unfolds in the fictional towns of Fairhaven and around the Kentish Weald, Coopers Chase retirement village, an old convent. The movie shifts the story inland and makes London a key location. ‘They go to the seaside in the book but we made that into a trip into London,’ says Merifield. ‘It just became more practical to shoot around London.’
Coopers Chase was filmed at Englefield House in Berkshire
In the book, the grand surrounds of Coopers Chase retirement village – ‘a “Hogwarts” version of a retirement community’, according to Chris Columbus – can be found in Kent. While its setting isn’t established in the film, Berkshire’s Englefield House was the filming location used. The Elizabethan country pile, which also featured in Lena Dunham’s Too Much, provided the dining room and library, as well as corridors, staircases and landings. ‘Englefield was a slam dunk,’ says Merifield. ‘It’s got the scale, the gorgeous manicured gardens and a church adjacent to the house. All those ingredients just fit beautifully.
While Elizabeth, Ron, Joyce and Ibrahim’s apartments were all built on studio soundstages, the Jigsaw Room, where the gang gather to scan old crime files for clues, was built from scratch and abutted the house itself. ‘That was one of the greatest challenges,’ says Merifield. ‘It’s one thing building a set, but it’s another to integrate it into existing architecture. We’d just finished building and dressing the set when we had this massive storm and it flooded. Our prop people were pulling out the furniture, and we had to send someone to B&Q to get an AquaVac.’
A key location in the story is a graveyard in the grounds of Coopers Chase. Elizabeth, Ron and the other residents stage a protest against its demolition. ‘We built the graveyard at Englefield,’ says Merifield, ‘and sculpted the graves out of polystyrene. Even the actors were [confused]. Helen and Celia were knocking on the walls and asking if they were real.’
📍Here’s how to visit the grounds of Englefield House
Ian and Bodgan’s meeting was filmed at The Red Lion pub in Buckinghamshire
‘This is actually my local pub,’ laughs the production designer, who recced 30 pubs before settling on this Little Missenden boozer for a pivotal scene in the film. ‘We wanted something quintessentially English, with oak beans and horse brasses etc, but so many of those spaces have low ceilings. It disables lighting and performance, because people have to duck and David Tennant is quite tall. We put in loads of flowers and hanging baskets and tubs and furniture and it worked well.’
Fairhaven police station was filmed in the village of Albury, Hertfordshire
This picture postcard village has an unusual filmography, having appeared in both Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason and The Dirty Dozen. The village hall provides the exterior for the movie’s police station. ‘The village has a duck pond and a quintessential Englishness to the architecture, with pretty roses around the cottage doors and even a sign that read: “Beware! Frogs crossing.” Chris [Columbus] thought that was hilarious so we put a bigger version in the film.’
Ron’s aquarobics class was filmed at Gaddesden Place in Hertfordshire
Yes, that is a one-time James Bond doing a light pool workout at Coopers Chase. This scene, along with Joyce’s first encounter with the Thursday Murder Club, was filmed at Gaddesden country house near London, a location previously used The King’s Speech and Cruella. ‘We filmed there for a day,’ says Merifield. ‘We thought it would be hugely funny to have Pierce doing an exercise class with a rubber ring.’
Jason’s arrest was filmed at Slough Ice Arena
Boxer-turned-reality TV star Jason Ritchie is rehearsing for a new ice-skating TV show when DCI Hudson turns up to ask him a few questions. The scene was filmed at an ice rink in Slough, Berkshire.
Shepperton Studios was used as London and for interiors
The Thursday Murder Club makes two forays into London: an opening flashback to a woman’s fall from a window in the 1970s and again in the present-day. These sets, along with the Coopers Chase apartments and the interior of Fairhaven police station, were constructed on Netflix’s new stages at Shepperton Studios. ‘We were the first to use them,’ says Merifield. ‘You could have eaten your dinner off them.’
Is there a trailer?
Yes, and you can watch it below.
The Thursday Murder Club is in UK select cinemas on Aug 22. It streams on Netflix from Aug 28.
The best murder-mystery movies of all-time to test your sleuthing skills to the max.
The best movies of 2025 (so far).
