Crime clearly does pay for Thursday Murder Club author Richard Osman – after the writer and TV host saw his company’s accounts double to a stunning £4.5million.
Records for Six Seven Entertainment – of which Osman, 54, is the sole director – saw its cash in bank and hand soar from £2,071,556 in 2024 to £4,451,074 in 2025.
Listed as producing ‘artistic creation’ on Companies House, the business was only incorporated in 2022 with £1.8million already in the bank.
It comes after a stellar year for the former Pointless host, which saw the build up to his series being adapted by Netflix, starring Dame Helen Mirren, Celia Imrie, Pierce Brosnan and Sir Ben Kingsley.
On its publication in 2020, The Thursday Murder Club became the only book to have sold more than one million copies in the same year as its release and the third-highest-selling hardback novel after Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol and JK Rowling’s Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows.
It was said to have been bought for a seven-figure sum by Viking Press after a 10-publisher bidding war.
It was followed by three sequels, The Man Who Died Twice in 2021, The Bullet That Missed in 2022 and The Last Devil to Die in 2023.
A fifth – The Impossible Fortune – is set to be released on September 25.
The novels have turned into a runaway success story, selling more than 10 million copies globally.
The film rights to the book were soon snapped up by legendary director Steven Spielberg with his production company Amblin Entertainment beating off competition from 13 other studios.
He also started hosting The Rest is Entertainment alongside Marina Hyde in late 2023, with the hit show spilling the pair’s insider knowledge of TV, films and pop culture.
In the last year, accounts revealed Osman had to pay £674,327 in tax and social security – with a further £74,512 going to other creditors. This is up from £155,754 in tax and £11,325 last year.
Netflix is set to release Thursday Murder Club on August 28, a year after Osman revealed that the film adaptation of his book will star Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley.
Dame Helen, 79, will be playing Elizabeth Best, Sir Ben, 81, is portraying Ibrahim Arif and Pierce, 71, will taken on the role of Ron Ritchie.
Richard said at the time: ‘I’m now allowed to officially announce three of the four members of the Thursday Murder Club.
‘Elizabeth is going to be played by the person who people most often shout at me in the street as them wanting them to play Elizabeth… Helen Mirren, which is very exciting.’
‘Ibrahim is Sir Ben Kingsley. Ron is going to be played by – I’m going to say the most handsome man in the world, so he’s going to have to dull himself down a bit… Pierce Brosnan.’
He added: ‘Joyce we’re still in negotiations but again the name is the one that people most shout at me in the street.
Richard went on to detail the project, which Chris Columbus was announced to be directing. Columbus directed Mrs Doubtfire, Home Alone, the first two Harry Potter films and also wrote The Goonies, which Richard revealed is his actress and comedian wife, Ingrid Oliver’s ‘favourite film of all time’.
He said: ‘Lots more casting to come in the following weeks. We’re filming this summer from end of June to September, all in England’.
He added: ‘He’s working on the script at the moment’.
Richard went on: ‘Mirren, Kingsley, Brosnan – I can see the poster now. As summer goes on, any questions for the Q&A edition [of the podcast] about Ben Kingsley, his views on things, just ask me. I’ll be having tea with him on a bus…’
There are also roles for Jonathan Pryce, Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Tony Curran, Richard E Grant, Tom Ellis, Paul Freeman, Sarah Niles, Ingrid Oliver and David Tennant.
The Thursday Murder Club follows a group of pensioners in a middle-class retirement village, who set about solving the murder of a property developer.
The a gang of amateur sleuths are made up of retired spook Elizabeth, stroppy ex-trade unionist Ron, former nurse Joyce and psychiatrist Ibrahim.
Originally the film was set to be written and directed Ol Parker, with shooting set to begin in March, with Meryl Streep and Viola Davis rumoured to star.
The Thursday Murder Club will be released on Netflix on August 28.