Thursday Murder Club star Daniel Mays breaks down excitement for "who's-who" all-star cast

Osman himself penned the script in collaboration with Katy Brand, while adding to the star power is director Chris Columbus, who is best known for working on the first two Harry Potter films, Mrs Doubtfire and Home Alone.

Speaking to Radio Times magazine, Mays recalled the process for getting cast in the buzzy Thursday Murder Club project.

He explained: "I'd just arrived in Belgium to work on Bookish, Mark Gatiss's new show. Then my agent messaged: 'Here's the script [for The Thursday Murder Club], do a self-tape [audition], they're seeing eight actors on Monday, you've got to be in the mix...'

"Luckily, the part came my way. But it’s a who’s-who in that cast: Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Celia Imrie, Ben Kingsley. My first day on set there was the Queen, James Bond, Acorn Antiques and Gandhi! It was mad."

The A-list names that Mays lists in the above quote are playing the amateur sleuths at the centre of the story, who take on an exciting (albeit dangerous) new hobby in their retirement years: solving murders.

The group consists of retired spy Elizabeth (Mirren), former union leader Ron (Brosnan), ex-psychiatrist Ibrahim (Kingsley) and retired nurse Joyce (Imrie), with Mays in an as-yet-undisclosed supporting role.

Radio Times noted that he has previously played his fair share of police officers in other dramas – from Magpie Murders to Des and Ashes to Ashes – and he revealed that he gets "stopped by cops" all the time as a result.

"I even got stopped once at the airport. The guy was undercover, as were the three guys in front of me," he added. "I thought I was in the middle of some weird sting going down at Heathrow.

"He told me, 'No, we just wanted to say how much we loved Line of Duty!'"

The Thursday Murder Club is coming soon to Netflix.

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