We don't need dead bodies to occupy ourselves!

From book clubs to bridge, the residents of St George's Park retirement community, the real-life inspiration behind The Thursday Murder Club, have plenty to keep themselves busy

- By Aditi Rane

IT IS mid morning at St George’s Park, a sprawling retirement village on the Sussex Downs, and three residents are gathered in the bar, readying themselves for an outing. Later that day, they will be heading to the Chichester Festival Theatre to see Top Hat.

Their outfits reflect the sense of occasion: Richard in a shirt and neat sweater vest, Mick in a snazzy patterned shirt and Irene in a navy blue blouse finished with a scarf that loops elegantly at the collar.

The Mae’s Court Bar, the village’s new hub, opened in June. With its polished wooden finishes, plush seating and soaring glass roof that bathes the room in natural light, it looks less like a retirement facility and more like a members’ club.

The journey to St George’s Park winds through a farm estate. Wild birds swoop across the fields, and at one point three hulking water buffalo appear by the fence.

“Not alpacas,” says CEO Philip Smith with a grin. “Though we did once have alpacas, which have since died.”

This blend of bucolic tranquillity and bustling village life provided the inspiration for Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club. Quite literally.

Osman’s mother, Brenda, lives here, and her experiences of the community’s rhythms — the clubs, the camaraderie, the committee debates — informed the cast of pensioner detectives who have now leapt from the page to Netflix screen.

The writer has been visiting the community for the past 15 years, since buying his mother a home there.

Last year the Pointless star turned mega-author told the Express: “I’m a good, working-class boy. It’s my proudest thing that I bought her a place in that retirement village. That’s what she dreamed of.”

He added with a smile: “It’s obviously paid me back!”

Today, the residents at St George’s find the connection amusing.