Chris Columbus' adaptation of Richard Osman's best-selling The Thursday Murder Club novel sees more stellar actors join the incredible cast. 

Richard E. Grant and Tom Ellis are among the names announced this week. Award-winning Grant made his film debut in the cult classic Withnail and I. Ellis is best known for playing the lead in Lucifer. His breakout moment was in the British sitcom, Miranda.

Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsly, Celia Imrie, David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce, Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays, and Henry Lloyd-Hughes have already been announced for the Netflix crime comedy-drama.

The original plot revolves around a group of pensioners who become amateur sleuths when they set about solving the murder of a property developer in their luxurious Cooper's Chase retirement village where they live. Cooper's Chase is set near the fictitious village of Fairhaven in Kent.

Mirren plays Elizabeth, a former spy; Kingsley plays a retired psychiatrist Ibrahim; Bronson plays a union activist, Ron; and Imrie plays a former nurse Joyce. 

Doctor Who's Ingrid Oliver, who is married to Osman, is also joining the cast, alongside The Curse's Geoff Bell, Absentia's Paul Freeman, and Ted Lasso's Sarah Niles.

Harry Potter's Chris Columbus is adapting Osman's novel for the screen. 

Osman himself referred to the stellar cast as "the greatest British cast assembled since the [Harry Potter] movies" in an episode of his The Rest Is Entertainment podcast.

Osman dreamt up the plot of his book whilst visiting his mother, Brenda, in her retirement village. Speaking to the BBC last year with her son, Brenda said:

"We have a 'Thursday Knit and Natter Club' but we don't have a 'Thursday Murder Club', not yet anyway." Richard added "You got to be careful with those knitting needles!"

The first The Thursday Murder Club book became officially the UK's fastest-selling adult fiction hardback, and is now one of a series of books by Osman who used to be known as the Game Show Guru but has gone on to sell over 10 million books worldwide. His fourth and final installment, The Last Devil to Die is out now here.

OTHER THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB PRESS RELEASES:

April 26, 2024: 'The Thursday Murder Club' Casts Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, and Sir Ben Kingsley here.