Richard Osman voiced concerns about Thursday Murder Club plot changes – multiple times

And it sounds like the author, Richard Osman, was in the same boat when he first heard about the alterations.

Appearing on ITV's This Morning earlier this week, Osman was quizzed about his reaction to finding out about changes to the books when host Ben Shephard notes how protective readers are of the beloved characters.

Asked if he had ever said "are you sure that's the right way to go with this" to the filmmakers, Osman replied: "I can reveal I did say that a couple of times. Yes, I did.

"Ask me if [producer Steven Spielberg] listened," he quipped, adding: "They know what they're doing, they made E.T. I didn't make E.T."

Osman emphasised that he had to put his faith in those adapting his source material and that the film exists alongside the books, rather than replacing them.

"I've written my version of the book, and that's The Thursday Murder Club, and it's available in all good bookshops and it'll be there forever," he said. "In 100 years' time, that's my version. That's the version that comes from my heart.

"I'm not gonna be the person to sit down and do an adaptation for a film because I've done it already, so you have to give it to brilliant people.

"And they've got to do a two-hour version of this thing. If you wrote down everything that was in the book, it would just be Joyce wittering on for kind of four-and-a-half hours and everyone would switch off so, you have to let other people do their version of it.

"They have to make choices that you wouldn't necessarily make yourself, but that's the fun of the thing."

The Thursday Murder Club is available to stream on Netflix.

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