None of us want to go through grief

BACK WITH A FIFTH THURSDAY MURDER CLUB NOVEL, RICHARD OSMAN TELLS ELLA WALKER ABOUT WHY HE DOESN'T FEAR GROWING OLDER

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STRONG CAST: Celia Imrie, Helen Mirren, Naomi Ackie, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley star in The Thursday Murder Club

"I LOVE, love, love doing nothing. Doing nothing is, quite absolutely, my state of grace," says Richard Osman, 54, who, most days, is doing very far from nothing.

When we speak, he’s just wrapped on 110 episodes of his quiz show Richard Osman's House of Games, is hosting The Rest Is Entertainment podcast with Marina Hyde each week and, during our conversation, is signing 5,000 copies of his new book, The Impossible Fortune.

He admits he’s not wonderful at multitasking. “I’m good at monotasking. Focusing on one thing at a time, in extreme depth,” he says wryly.

Born in Billericay and growing up in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, for most of us, for a long time, Richard was best known as Alexander Armstrong’s foil on BBC1’s Pointless, or for giving us 8 Out Of 10 Cats on Channel 4. Since 2020 though, he's the man who brought Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim into our lives.

And now the Thursday Murder Club crew are back for a fifth stint. “I've given them a year off to rest and recuperate. I put them through quite a lot,” notes Richard fondly, calling his characters “four of his best friends”. “Things have changed a little bit for all of them.”

The book starts with a wedding, where someone comes up to enigmatic sleuth Elizabeth - who is grieving - and says, ‘Someone is trying to kill me. Can you help?’ Then adventure ensues, involving a “seemingly uncrackable code” and a “huge amount of money’, alongside themes of loss and friendship.