An adaptation of Richard Osman’s popular murder-mystery novel starring Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren is filming in Beaconsfield today.
Just weeks after Emma Thompson was spotted in Hambleden, it appears another film crew is taking advantage of Buckinghamshire’s leafy green towns and villages to stage their celebrity-packed production locally.
The Free Press can reveal that the Netflix adaptation of Richard Osman’s celebrated book series The Thursday Murder Club is filming on Stratton Road in Beaconsfield today, with a road closure in place until 7pm.
The upcoming film follows a group of retiree sleuths on the scent of a murder case and has an impressively stacked cast including Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie, David Tennant and Richard E. Grant.
Osman’s debut novel saw four members of the picturesque Coopers Chase retirement village community – ex-spy Elizabeth (Mirren), ex-psychiatrist (Kingsley), ex-union activist Ron (Brosnan) and ex-nurse Joyce (Imrie) – band together in the name of justice.
Based in the fictional village of Fairhaven in Kent, the cosy crime caper struck a tone with readers, shooting to the top of the Sunday Times bestseller charts and becoming the first literary debut in the UK to nab the Christmas number one spot after its release in 2020.
The pretty, sunny stretch of Stratton Road fits the bill perfectly and while the extent of filming taking place during the 13-hour road closure is unclear, it was bustling with activity when we stopped by at around 11am, though there were no celebrity sightings to be had.
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The area is shut off to non-residents while shooting continues but a traffic management warden who didn’t want to be named said he wasn’t expecting any impact on local drivers – except the temporary loss of a “cut-through” route.
Clive Watson, 66, who lives on Stratton Road said he was also yet to see any household names but had been told by the production crew that a “car chase” would be staged near the front of his house this afternoon.
The non-executive director also said a number of heavy-duty vans – including one bearing the revealing sign ‘Murder locations’ – arrived along the road on Monday and, to his knowledge, would begin packing up tomorrow.
Filming kicked off on The Thursday Murder Club last month, with Osman confirming on The Rest is Entertainment podcast that it will be shot “from (the) end of June through to September” in England.
A release date has yet to be announced but watch this space!
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