September 21, 2024 • 14 mins
The author behind the smash hit Thursday Murder Club series has launched the first book in a new crime thriller saga.
Richard Osman put his first crime novel series on hold - and the record-shattering books are set to be adapted for Netflix.
He says he felt the need to introduce some new characters to readers to keep things exciting.
"As soon as I fell in love with these new characters - Steve and Amy and Rosie - everything was golden."
We Solve Murders is available in bookstores and online from September 24.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks edb Right.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
The Thursday Murder Club book series by writer and TV
personality Richard Osman has been an absolute global smash bit.
The series has sold ten million copies worldwide and smashed
sales records in the UK. It's also been picked up
by Steven Spielberg and has currently been adapted for Netflix.
And I'll tell you what it is, an star studded cast,
(00:34):
It's incredible. Author Richard Osman will be well known to
fans of UK panel shows the likes of Pointless and
Eight out of Ten Cats. Richard has put The Thursday
Murder Club on hold to start a new series, We
Solve Murders is on sale now and Richard Osman joins
me now from the UK. Richard, thank you for your time.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
It's a pleasure. Francesca, lovely to lovely to chat.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
After four books, You've put Thursday Murder Club series on
hold to write We Solve Murders. Why the break? Did
you just need a break?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
No, God, not at all. I think readers occasionally need
a break. I think you know I'm going to be
writing for the next twenty five years. So at some
point you have to introduce a new world to readers.
You have to introduce new characters to readers, and you know,
that's what I'm doing here. Thursday Murder Club will be
back in twenty twenty five, but in the meantime, I've
got this wonderful raft of new characters who I think
(01:30):
and I hope people will also fall in love with.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I'm sure they will. Was it quite refreshing, though, for
you to do something different to develop these new characters.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I don't know really. For the first couple of weeks,
I really felt like I was cheating on the Thursday
Murder Club. I felt terribly guilty. And then I reasoned
with myself that the Thursday Murder Club still exists in
this world. They're just up the road. They're just putting
their feet up after a tough few years. And as
soon as I fell in love with these new characters,
Steve and Amy and Rosie, everything was, everything was golden
(02:01):
from that moment onwards.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
A different book, but they add a little similarities. Think
you know, it's absolutely going to appeal to your fans,
isn't it. There are some similarities between the series.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
In this book, Yeah, listen, I think so much as
I'd like to say, I've written, you know, an extraordinary
new piece of experimental fiction. Anyone who likes the Thursday
Murder Club books, I think is going to love this.
It's got the same wittten wisdom and warmth and all
of that kind of stuff. It's just on a broader canvas.
It's likely more globe trotting than Thursday Murder Club has done.
(02:33):
But yeah, you would not mistake it for anyone else's writing.
I think once you got through the first few pages, I.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Did hear that Steve, one of the one of the
main characters, might be slightly inspired by yourself and the
fact that you're a bit of a reluctant traveler.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yes, I wanted to write something that was globe trotting,
and I thought to myself, would who would it be
funniest for me to send around the world? And I
thought the best person would be someone who really, really
really doesn't want to go around the world, and that's Steve.
Steve lives in a beautiful village in Hampshire, in the
south of England, in the New Forest. All he wants
to do really is stay home with his cat Trouble,
(03:09):
and he wants to do the pub queers, and he
wants to hang out with his mates. And essentially, his
daughter in law is a bodyguard for billionaires and all
she wants to do is go around the world. And
she gets into trouble. Someone is targeting her and she
owes only one person she can trust, that's Steve, so
she sends for him, and suddenly, poor Steve has to
leave behind this quiet life and fly around the world
(03:32):
on private jets, much to his disappointment.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I have to say, I'm not sure if you're at
the private jet stage yet, but is that you are?
You a reluctant traveler a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
I like it when I am somewhere. I don't like
the transitional period between being at home and being somewhere abroad.
That's the bit I hate. I'm happy at home. If
I end up somewhere else, I'm okay, but yeat by
and large. I don't want to go to airports. I
don't want to be on planes. I don't want to
in my brain. I don't like to do new things,
(04:03):
and I kind of do, but I wanted to have
somebody having this incredibly luxurious world around him, and all
the time just thinking I need to get home for Tuesday,
because that's the pub quiz.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I do have to hit you up on a night though.
Regarding traveling, because you went to Australia last year, you
came all the way to Australia. We adjusted, We had
just a tiny hop across the Tasman. Very disappointed. You
did not make it.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Tell me about it, you were disappointed. One of my
great ambitions is to come to New Zealand, right I
think I think British people are in love with New
Zealand because it has you know, it feels exhaustic and
far away, but it feels it has a familiarity. You know,
if we've been to Scotland, we feel like New Zealand
is this extraordinarily exciting and you know, a tropical version
of Scotland. Yeah, I went to Australia. I could only
(04:48):
do a week. I honestly, like all British people, I
thought New Zealand was like half an hour on the
plane from Sydney. When I discovered it wasn't, I thought, Okay,
if I'm going to do New Zealand, I don't want
to turn up for a day. If I want to
do New Zealand, I'm going to come for a month,
see everything, see everybody cool.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah, you've always written of your work has of course
being on TV, and it wasn't until you were almost
fifty that you started releasing these novels. Do you think
that time and their life experience, you know, was actually
helpful when it came to you know, these book these books.
Do you think that if you'd been writing these books, say,
(05:26):
in your twenties, there would have been quite a different thing.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
I do think that. Yeah. I mean, listen, there are
some there are people who write brilliant books in their twenties,
you know, Sally Rooney, Martin Amos that there are people
who can do it. I think if I'd written a
book in my twenties, it might have been a bit
more glib, you know, I'm sure it would have been.
You know, I could have written something funny and written
a murder mystery. But I think I hope that life
and lived experience allows me to write a book that
(05:50):
resonates more with people, and I can write about things
I wouldn't have been able to do. And I've been
through all sorts of things, So yeah, I think that
my brain was looking after me, and every time I
started a novel over the years, I think my brain
was saying, you've got to wait your turn, young man,
and you've got to wait into Actually you've got something
to say.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Has the book success sort of turned your career a
little bit? I mean, is this kind of what you're
mostly doing these days?
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, it's funny, you know what. Weirdly, being a TV
presenter was there with blip in my life because I've
always been a writer, and then I became a completely
accidental television presenter and a completely accidental famous person in
the UK, and actually writing is my love. Writing is
a thing that I've always done. So this is actually,
this is one hundred percent me. If I look back
(06:38):
across my whole career. If anyone wants to know who
I am, if anyone wants to know where my heart
is and what I know about the world, it's in
the books. That is one hundred percent me. And everything
in life happens for a reason. But I'm very glad
I've lived life in the order that I have.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
You're right, incredibly strong, intricate characters. Where do they come from?
What do you want in a character.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Well to me, I know, I write in the genre
of crime fiction, and people sort of always think about
plots and always think about, O, where do you get
your ideas? And for me, books of all character that's
the only thing I'm interested in. Really, It's not what
happens in the book. It's why do I care what
happens in the book? Why am I going to follow
the story? So everything for me starts with character. So
you know, if I start a book, I'm not thinking, Oh,
(07:23):
what could happen, what could be the murder, what could
be the twist? I'm thinking, who am my protagonists here?
What's their relationship with each other? Why do they love
each other? What differences do they have with each other?
And when I start writing a book, I just write
conversations between characters until I work them out, until suddenly
people say something. So in this book, I've got Steve Wheeler,
the ex cop, and I've got his daughter in law,
(07:45):
which I thought it was a fun relationship, and I thought, right,
I'm going to find out a little bit about this
daughter in law, Amy, who's a bodyguard, so she has
to have a client. At the start of the book,
I thought I'll give her a like a novelist, like
a Jackie Collins type novelist. So she's looking after this
woman called Rosie D'Antonio on a private island in South Carolina,
and I thought, I'll just write a conversation between the
two of them. And I'm trying to find out about
(08:06):
Amy when I'm doing this, and she's having this conversation
with Rosie, who is of indeterminate age but certainly was
around in the Hollywood of the seventies and eighties, so
she certainly has a certain vintage. She's always got a
martini and her hand of mischief in her eyes. And
when I finished that, just a bit of dialogue, this
one little chapter, I thought, Rosie has got to also
(08:28):
be It was going to be a two parter. Now
this book is a three part and that's what I
love about character. That's what I love about citing books
is find the characters. Find the characters, and then and
then follow them and plot can follow, but everything is
do I care about these people.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Some people think that mixing crime and comedy it's not
a natural peering. I mean, I think that comedy can
be mixed with absolutely anything, but I think it's really
hard to get the balance right, and you get the
balance right.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
But that's hard, Yes, it really is, And I'm exactly
like you as a lifelong crime fiction fan. There's a
few people who could even do it, Chris brookmy I
can do it, Carl Arson and the States can't do it.
But I don't really like it so much when there
are jokes in crime but takes me out of the story.
And so right from the start Thirsty Murder, I thought,
(09:14):
whatever you do, don't make this funny, right, I just thought, absolutely,
don't do it. But my career has been comedy. That's
the way my brain works, its first port of call.
So the rule I made for myself was the characters
can be funny. The author is not allowed to be funny.
So if there's anything that's making you laugh, it's the characters,
and there are interactions with each other and the situations
(09:37):
they find themselves in. I hope at no point you're thinking, oh,
that's the author trying to be funny, that's the author
making a joke, because it takes you out of the story.
So set myself that rule early on, which is anything
funny that happens is down to the characters, and I
keep myself out of it. That's how I try and
make that balance.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
It works. Let's talk about the Netflix adaptation, because it's
quite incredible the group of people that have come on
board to pull us off. You've got Steven Spielberg, You've
got Chris Columbus writing and directing it. You've got the
most incredible cast. So that what is it like handing
it over? What is it like handing over to people
of this kind of caliber?
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Well, yes, exactly those That question is absolutely right to
be a two parter because obviously, when you have to
hand it over, unless you're going to be in charge
of the whole thing yourself, you have to hold it
at arm's length. You have to say I've done my bit,
which is right the book. I have to let someone
else have some fun now. But when you hand it
over to people of that caliber, and Chris Columbus is
just the nicest man you'll ever meet in your entire life,
(10:41):
and then Chris says, oh that Helen Mirren's going to
do it, You're like okay, And Sir Ben Kingsley has
joined up. See there, imriy is this per Pierce Brosnan
isn't there? You just think, well, look, i know I'm
holding this at arm's length, but I feel like I'm
in safe hands. So I've been down to the set
a few times and you know, they make me very welcome,
and that's that's lovely. But seeing that incredible group of
(11:03):
people doing their job is one and I just I'm honestly,
I'm watching from the outside and waiting, like like fans
of the book, I'm just waiting to see what they
do with it and what the film's like. But it's
some Yeah, you sort of sit there and Pierce bos
and ambles over and starts chatting to you, and you think, well,
this is this is an unusual Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
You've had a lot of involvement in television in the UK,
the media and New Zealanders and all sorts of trouble.
Some companies have made capbex one, nick marks, isdopted some
entire news division. Who You're talking about the BBC and
its financial woes on your podcast. What is the situation
like in the UK? Is the media struggling?
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Yeah, it's the same. Really, well, do you know what
It's interesting when we say the media is struggling, because
what we actually mean is the media as we understand
it from where we were when we grew up is struggling.
So you know, I grew up in an environment and
lots and lots of your listeners would have grown up
in environment where you've got your free to air television
and you've got your regular channels, and you know, everything
is scheduled. And that was our childhood, that was our
(12:04):
teenage years, that's our twenties. So that's what we understand
by media that is definitely going. So all those big
old legacy companies and those big legacy broadcasters, they're in
trouble because advertisers have found easier ways to reach people,
and without those advertisers that the ecosystem doesn't work. So
I think media, funnily enough, creativity and content has probably
(12:25):
never been in a better place because there's lots and
lots of ways for people to enter the industry to
create content. But that thing that is in our heart,
which is sitting down with our family or friends watching
something that the rest of our country is watching at
the same time and then talking about it the next day,
that is something that's going to disappear. And it's tremendously
(12:46):
sad for us. It's certainly tremendously sad for people who
work in those legacy industries. But I think it's inevitable,
and I think it does get replaced with something interesting,
and it will get replaced with something where there is
more work to do. But you know, if you worked
on the steam trains just before the electric trains came in,
there's not a huge amount that you can do about it.
(13:06):
It's the truth, other than you know, try and you know,
learn how electric trains work.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Richard just finally Thursday Murder Club characters. It's great to
hear we'll be back in twenty twenty five. But I
suppose the one issue about writing about people in a
retirement village and of the sucon age is that how
long can they last? So does that sort of tear
up your heartstrings a bit? Because you've created these characters
(13:33):
that people really really love. I mean, they can go
on for ever. But I wonder if it ever crosses
your mind?
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Yeah, I do think, Yeah, that's if I made any
misstep here, it's to start a series with protagonists in
their late seventies and early eighties. I think that I
try and pack an awful lot in So the first
four books sort of take place disorder across a year, really,
and I'll continue to do that. I'm also banking on
the fact that readers and myself can enter into a
(14:04):
little contract with each other, which is we can slow
down the aging process a little bit. But you're absolutely right.
I can't be writing about them in twenty years time,
but there's plenty of life in them yet. I will
say that. But you make a very valid point, and
don't think it's not something that's kept me awake at
night before.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Now, well I'll sign that contract. I'm on board.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Excellent. Thank you, Richard.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
It's been a delight to talk to you. Thank you
so much for your time.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
It's an absolute pleasure. Thank you, Francesca and New Zealand.
I will come and visit you soon. I promise we.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Will hold you to that, Richard. That was Tally host
and author Richard Osmond. His new book We Solve Murders
is in stores this week.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudgin, listen
live to News Talks It'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks edb Right.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
The Thursday Murder Club book series by writer and TV
personality Richard Osman has been an absolute global smash bit.
The series has sold ten million copies worldwide and smashed
sales records in the UK. It's also been picked up
by Steven Spielberg and has currently been adapted for Netflix.
And I'll tell you what it is, an star studded cast,
(00:34):
It's incredible. Author Richard Osman will be well known to
fans of UK panel shows the likes of Pointless and
Eight out of Ten Cats. Richard has put The Thursday
Murder Club on hold to start a new series, We
Solve Murders is on sale now and Richard Osman joins
me now from the UK. Richard, thank you for your time.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
It's a pleasure. Francesca, lovely to lovely to chat.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
After four books, You've put Thursday Murder Club series on
hold to write We Solve Murders. Why the break? Did
you just need a break?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
No, God, not at all. I think readers occasionally need
a break. I think you know I'm going to be
writing for the next twenty five years. So at some
point you have to introduce a new world to readers.
You have to introduce new characters to readers, and you know,
that's what I'm doing here. Thursday Murder Club will be
back in twenty twenty five, but in the meantime, I've
got this wonderful raft of new characters who I think
(01:30):
and I hope people will also fall in love with.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I'm sure they will. Was it quite refreshing, though, for
you to do something different to develop these new characters.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I don't know really. For the first couple of weeks,
I really felt like I was cheating on the Thursday
Murder Club. I felt terribly guilty. And then I reasoned
with myself that the Thursday Murder Club still exists in
this world. They're just up the road. They're just putting
their feet up after a tough few years. And as
soon as I fell in love with these new characters,
Steve and Amy and Rosie, everything was, everything was golden
(02:01):
from that moment onwards.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
A different book, but they add a little similarities. Think
you know, it's absolutely going to appeal to your fans,
isn't it. There are some similarities between the series.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
In this book, Yeah, listen, I think so much as
I'd like to say, I've written, you know, an extraordinary
new piece of experimental fiction. Anyone who likes the Thursday
Murder Club books, I think is going to love this.
It's got the same wittten wisdom and warmth and all
of that kind of stuff. It's just on a broader canvas.
It's likely more globe trotting than Thursday Murder Club has done.
(02:33):
But yeah, you would not mistake it for anyone else's writing.
I think once you got through the first few pages, I.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Did hear that Steve, one of the one of the
main characters, might be slightly inspired by yourself and the
fact that you're a bit of a reluctant traveler.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yes, I wanted to write something that was globe trotting,
and I thought to myself, would who would it be
funniest for me to send around the world? And I
thought the best person would be someone who really, really
really doesn't want to go around the world, and that's Steve.
Steve lives in a beautiful village in Hampshire, in the
south of England, in the New Forest. All he wants
to do really is stay home with his cat Trouble,
(03:09):
and he wants to do the pub queers, and he
wants to hang out with his mates. And essentially, his
daughter in law is a bodyguard for billionaires and all
she wants to do is go around the world. And
she gets into trouble. Someone is targeting her and she
owes only one person she can trust, that's Steve, so
she sends for him, and suddenly, poor Steve has to
leave behind this quiet life and fly around the world
(03:32):
on private jets, much to his disappointment.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I have to say, I'm not sure if you're at
the private jet stage yet, but is that you are?
You a reluctant traveler a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
I like it when I am somewhere. I don't like
the transitional period between being at home and being somewhere abroad.
That's the bit I hate. I'm happy at home. If
I end up somewhere else, I'm okay, but yeat by
and large. I don't want to go to airports. I
don't want to be on planes. I don't want to
in my brain. I don't like to do new things,
(04:03):
and I kind of do, but I wanted to have
somebody having this incredibly luxurious world around him, and all
the time just thinking I need to get home for Tuesday,
because that's the pub quiz.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I do have to hit you up on a night though.
Regarding traveling, because you went to Australia last year, you
came all the way to Australia. We adjusted, We had
just a tiny hop across the Tasman. Very disappointed. You
did not make it.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Tell me about it, you were disappointed. One of my
great ambitions is to come to New Zealand, right I
think I think British people are in love with New
Zealand because it has you know, it feels exhaustic and
far away, but it feels it has a familiarity. You know,
if we've been to Scotland, we feel like New Zealand
is this extraordinarily exciting and you know, a tropical version
of Scotland. Yeah, I went to Australia. I could only
(04:48):
do a week. I honestly, like all British people, I
thought New Zealand was like half an hour on the
plane from Sydney. When I discovered it wasn't, I thought, Okay,
if I'm going to do New Zealand, I don't want
to turn up for a day. If I want to
do New Zealand, I'm going to come for a month,
see everything, see everybody cool.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah, you've always written of your work has of course
being on TV, and it wasn't until you were almost
fifty that you started releasing these novels. Do you think
that time and their life experience, you know, was actually
helpful when it came to you know, these book these books.
Do you think that if you'd been writing these books, say,
(05:26):
in your twenties, there would have been quite a different thing.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
I do think that. Yeah. I mean, listen, there are
some there are people who write brilliant books in their twenties,
you know, Sally Rooney, Martin Amos that there are people
who can do it. I think if I'd written a
book in my twenties, it might have been a bit
more glib, you know, I'm sure it would have been.
You know, I could have written something funny and written
a murder mystery. But I think I hope that life
and lived experience allows me to write a book that
(05:50):
resonates more with people, and I can write about things
I wouldn't have been able to do. And I've been
through all sorts of things, So yeah, I think that
my brain was looking after me, and every time I
started a novel over the years, I think my brain
was saying, you've got to wait your turn, young man,
and you've got to wait into Actually you've got something
to say.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Has the book success sort of turned your career a
little bit? I mean, is this kind of what you're
mostly doing these days?
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, it's funny, you know what. Weirdly, being a TV
presenter was there with blip in my life because I've
always been a writer, and then I became a completely
accidental television presenter and a completely accidental famous person in
the UK, and actually writing is my love. Writing is
a thing that I've always done. So this is actually,
this is one hundred percent me. If I look back
(06:38):
across my whole career. If anyone wants to know who
I am, if anyone wants to know where my heart
is and what I know about the world, it's in
the books. That is one hundred percent me. And everything
in life happens for a reason. But I'm very glad
I've lived life in the order that I have.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
You're right, incredibly strong, intricate characters. Where do they come from?
What do you want in a character.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Well to me, I know, I write in the genre
of crime fiction, and people sort of always think about
plots and always think about, O, where do you get
your ideas? And for me, books of all character that's
the only thing I'm interested in. Really, It's not what
happens in the book. It's why do I care what
happens in the book? Why am I going to follow
the story? So everything for me starts with character. So
you know, if I start a book, I'm not thinking, Oh,
(07:23):
what could happen, what could be the murder, what could
be the twist? I'm thinking, who am my protagonists here?
What's their relationship with each other? Why do they love
each other? What differences do they have with each other?
And when I start writing a book, I just write
conversations between characters until I work them out, until suddenly
people say something. So in this book, I've got Steve Wheeler,
the ex cop, and I've got his daughter in law,
(07:45):
which I thought it was a fun relationship, and I thought, right,
I'm going to find out a little bit about this
daughter in law, Amy, who's a bodyguard, so she has
to have a client. At the start of the book,
I thought I'll give her a like a novelist, like
a Jackie Collins type novelist. So she's looking after this
woman called Rosie D'Antonio on a private island in South Carolina,
and I thought, I'll just write a conversation between the
two of them. And I'm trying to find out about
(08:06):
Amy when I'm doing this, and she's having this conversation
with Rosie, who is of indeterminate age but certainly was
around in the Hollywood of the seventies and eighties, so
she certainly has a certain vintage. She's always got a
martini and her hand of mischief in her eyes. And
when I finished that, just a bit of dialogue, this
one little chapter, I thought, Rosie has got to also
(08:28):
be It was going to be a two parter. Now
this book is a three part and that's what I
love about character. That's what I love about citing books
is find the characters. Find the characters, and then and
then follow them and plot can follow, but everything is
do I care about these people.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Some people think that mixing crime and comedy it's not
a natural peering. I mean, I think that comedy can
be mixed with absolutely anything, but I think it's really
hard to get the balance right, and you get the
balance right.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
But that's hard, Yes, it really is, And I'm exactly
like you as a lifelong crime fiction fan. There's a
few people who could even do it, Chris brookmy I
can do it, Carl Arson and the States can't do it.
But I don't really like it so much when there
are jokes in crime but takes me out of the story.
And so right from the start Thirsty Murder, I thought,
(09:14):
whatever you do, don't make this funny, right, I just thought, absolutely,
don't do it. But my career has been comedy. That's
the way my brain works, its first port of call.
So the rule I made for myself was the characters
can be funny. The author is not allowed to be funny.
So if there's anything that's making you laugh, it's the characters,
and there are interactions with each other and the situations
(09:37):
they find themselves in. I hope at no point you're thinking, oh,
that's the author trying to be funny, that's the author
making a joke, because it takes you out of the story.
So set myself that rule early on, which is anything
funny that happens is down to the characters, and I
keep myself out of it. That's how I try and
make that balance.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
It works. Let's talk about the Netflix adaptation, because it's
quite incredible the group of people that have come on
board to pull us off. You've got Steven Spielberg, You've
got Chris Columbus writing and directing it. You've got the
most incredible cast. So that what is it like handing
it over? What is it like handing over to people
of this kind of caliber?
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Well, yes, exactly those That question is absolutely right to
be a two parter because obviously, when you have to
hand it over, unless you're going to be in charge
of the whole thing yourself, you have to hold it
at arm's length. You have to say I've done my bit,
which is right the book. I have to let someone
else have some fun now. But when you hand it
over to people of that caliber, and Chris Columbus is
just the nicest man you'll ever meet in your entire life,
(10:41):
and then Chris says, oh that Helen Mirren's going to
do it, You're like okay, And Sir Ben Kingsley has
joined up. See there, imriy is this per Pierce Brosnan
isn't there? You just think, well, look, i know I'm
holding this at arm's length, but I feel like I'm
in safe hands. So I've been down to the set
a few times and you know, they make me very welcome,
and that's that's lovely. But seeing that incredible group of
(11:03):
people doing their job is one and I just I'm honestly,
I'm watching from the outside and waiting, like like fans
of the book, I'm just waiting to see what they
do with it and what the film's like. But it's
some Yeah, you sort of sit there and Pierce bos
and ambles over and starts chatting to you, and you think, well,
this is this is an unusual Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
You've had a lot of involvement in television in the UK,
the media and New Zealanders and all sorts of trouble.
Some companies have made capbex one, nick marks, isdopted some
entire news division. Who You're talking about the BBC and
its financial woes on your podcast. What is the situation
like in the UK? Is the media struggling?
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Yeah, it's the same. Really, well, do you know what
It's interesting when we say the media is struggling, because
what we actually mean is the media as we understand
it from where we were when we grew up is struggling.
So you know, I grew up in an environment and
lots and lots of your listeners would have grown up
in environment where you've got your free to air television
and you've got your regular channels, and you know, everything
is scheduled. And that was our childhood, that was our
(12:04):
teenage years, that's our twenties. So that's what we understand
by media that is definitely going. So all those big
old legacy companies and those big legacy broadcasters, they're in
trouble because advertisers have found easier ways to reach people,
and without those advertisers that the ecosystem doesn't work. So
I think media, funnily enough, creativity and content has probably
(12:25):
never been in a better place because there's lots and
lots of ways for people to enter the industry to
create content. But that thing that is in our heart,
which is sitting down with our family or friends watching
something that the rest of our country is watching at
the same time and then talking about it the next day,
that is something that's going to disappear. And it's tremendously
(12:46):
sad for us. It's certainly tremendously sad for people who
work in those legacy industries. But I think it's inevitable,
and I think it does get replaced with something interesting,
and it will get replaced with something where there is
more work to do. But you know, if you worked
on the steam trains just before the electric trains came in,
there's not a huge amount that you can do about it.
(13:06):
It's the truth, other than you know, try and you know,
learn how electric trains work.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Richard just finally Thursday Murder Club characters. It's great to
hear we'll be back in twenty twenty five. But I
suppose the one issue about writing about people in a
retirement village and of the sucon age is that how
long can they last? So does that sort of tear
up your heartstrings a bit? Because you've created these characters
(13:33):
that people really really love. I mean, they can go
on for ever. But I wonder if it ever crosses
your mind?
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Yeah, I do think, Yeah, that's if I made any
misstep here, it's to start a series with protagonists in
their late seventies and early eighties. I think that I
try and pack an awful lot in So the first
four books sort of take place disorder across a year, really,
and I'll continue to do that. I'm also banking on
the fact that readers and myself can enter into a
(14:04):
little contract with each other, which is we can slow
down the aging process a little bit. But you're absolutely right.
I can't be writing about them in twenty years time,
but there's plenty of life in them yet. I will
say that. But you make a very valid point, and
don't think it's not something that's kept me awake at
night before.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Now, well I'll sign that contract. I'm on board.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Excellent. Thank you, Richard.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
It's been a delight to talk to you. Thank you
so much for your time.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
It's an absolute pleasure. Thank you, Francesca and New Zealand.
I will come and visit you soon. I promise we.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Will hold you to that, Richard. That was Tally host
and author Richard Osmond. His new book We Solve Murders
is in stores this week.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudgin, listen
live to News Talks It'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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