Joyce Meadowcroft is a joy in Richard Osman's "The Thursday Murder Club" mystery; sadly, that joy went in Netflix's movie adaptation.
To be fair, it was an almost impossible task. One of the delights of the novel is the many chapters written as diary entries by Joyce with wry little observations. Also, I can’t have been alone in at one point suspecting that Joyce might be the killer after all. She's just so sweet that she appears to be too good to be true. Osman dangles the Agatha Christie false narrator possibility before your eyes, before that's revealed as a bluff.
You get none of this in the movie. Indeed, after watching on Netflix, you might be left wondering how this novel sold millions of copies. The movie is fine, but it’s nothing better than a passable episode of Death in Paradise.
Former nurse Joyce is played nicely enough by Celia Imrie, but there's none of the depth the character has in the book. She's also rather posher than I imagined, as is Ron (Pierce Brosnan). I did, though, rather enjoy Joyce's little rant at her loaded daughter, Joanna. "You won't call me more than once a week. You won't visit me for more than 47 minutes at a time. And now you won't even eat my cake".
The closest character to the book is Helen Mirren's Elizabeth, who's forever teasing her secret service past.
As I feared before watching it, the movie largely wipes out the quirky Englishness of the book, except for references to Ron's son being on Dancing on Ice and Celebrity MasterChef.
Coopers Chase turns Downton Abbey!
And what was going on with Coopers Chase?! It looked like Downton Abbey! Never mind when I'm old, I want to go there now. It looks amazing!
I half expected to see Lord Grantham playing croquet on the perfect lawn.
The Thursday Murder Club movie has leapt to the top of Netflix’s worldwide streaming chart, and you suspect Netflix will be eager to adapt all of Osman's novels.
There's no arguing it has a great cast, also including Ben Kingsley, David Tennant, and Richard E Grant. But I think your time would be better spent reading the books while eating one of Joyce’s terrifically yummy-looking cakes.
The Thursday Murder Club movie is on Netflix now.
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