Richard Osman in Conversation at Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival

By Sarah Morgan, July 2024

“I like setting myself problems,” says Richard Osman.

Not the kind that would cause issues in his everyday life, one assumes, but the type that confound the characters he’s created in his beloved bestselling The Thursday Murder Club books.

Osman has been appearing at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate recently, regaling fans with anecdotes and insights into his career. It’s certainly been an intriguing one.

It may seem as if he was an overnight success as an author, but that’s not the case. There are actors who claim all they really want to do is direct; Osman was a TV executive who really wanted to be a writer.

“If you met the 10-year-old me, you could see who I would turn into,” he claims. “I loved to read, to write.” He was already tall too, and not very outdoorsy: “I can sort of reach the top of a tree anyway, so there was no point climbing them!

“I did journalism in my teens, and Radio Sussex had an open mic session. I turned up and did that for a couple of years. Clive Myrie did it too. But I never thought a broadcasting career was possible, it seemed so far away.”

Instead, he studied Politics and Sociology at Trinity College, Cambridge.

“I thought maybe I’d be a sports journalist after university,” explains Osman. “Writing was the thing I loved and wanted to do. So when I went into TV, it was as a writer.

“I wrote jokes for Have I Got News For You, and I wrote a sitcom in my twenties, which was received terribly. I was very bruised by that. But I was working on game shows and quiz shows as well, so I ended up sticking with that, but I kept thinking that I really did want to write.”

A spell as a producer on various programmes followed before he pitched the idea for Pointless to the BBC. The rest, as they say, is history.

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After years behind the camera, Osman found that being in front of it gave him more free time to pursue his dream, which was inspired by visits to his mum.

“I would talk to my mum’s friends at their retirement village, and they’d be telling you these amazing stories about their lives,” smiles Osman. “But they felt as if they’d been shut away from society. We’re talking about people whose skills are not being used and are now invisible. I knew I could do something with that.”

And so The Thursday Murder Club, about a group of pensioners who solve crimes, was born. However, after four books written in quick succession, Osman fancied a change.

“It’s time to give them a rest, and I wanted to write a detective series. So I’ve got a new book, called We Solve Murders, about a detective agency.

“I thought I’d write about a guy who doesn’t want to go around the world, but has to. And he’s upset because he can’t get a scotch egg on a private plane.”

That guy is Steve Wheeler, a retired, widowed police officer living in the New Forest: “He just wants to do the pub quiz with his mates and look after his cat, who’s called Trouble.”

But that’s clearly not going to happen because his bodyguard daughter-in-law Amy, and her boss, a diva-like bestselling author (Osman isn’t revealing who she’s really inspired by, but reckons she’s an amalgamation of several high-profile writers), are about to embroil him in a globe-trotting plot involving murder and money.

“To see the reaction of the early readers has been wonderful,” he claims. “There are minor characters I know will return. But The Thursday Murder Club is still there, living in the same world, just down the road.”

Yes, you can run but you can’t hide from Joyce, Elizabeth, Ron and Ibrahim. There might not be a new book this year, but filming has begun on a movie adaptation of the first novel, directed by Chris Columbus, produced by Steven Spielberg, and starring Celia Imrie, Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley as the quartet.

“It’s different to the film I’d have written, but it’s fabulous,” grins Osman, whose wife, Ingrid Oliver, also has a role. “It’s wonderful going to the set, seeing those actors playing those characters.”

There has been some controversy over Brosnan’s casting, however. But Osman has the perfect rebuttle to that: “Some people have said that Pierce Brosnan isn’t who they saw as Ron, but Pierce Brosnan is who Ron would have envisioned as Ron!”

After Harrogate, Osman clearly has lots more writing to do – after all, he now has two series to work on. But, he says, the reaction he receives from the public is what keeps him going: “It’s not just tap, tap, tap on the computer, it’s engaging with readers that makes it special. It makes it all worthwhile.”

And then he’s off, to give himself more problems as he devises new ways to keep his fans entertained – we can’t wait to see what trouble he lands his characters in next.

top image: Andrew Stevens