Where Did They Film The Thursday Murder Club

So, you’ve read The Thursday Murder Club and now you’re wondering where they filmed the movie—the one where Helen Mirren and her pals solve crimes in a retirement village. You picture a cozy English hamlet, all teashops and gentle hills, where the biggest drama is whether the scones have enough clotted cream. Well, grab a cuppa and settle in, because the actual filming locations are like a treasure hunt your favorite grandparent would lead you on.

That "Quiet" Retirement Village Is Actually a Fancy Hotel

You might think Coopers Chase, the fictional retirement commune where our sleuths live, is a real-life village built for genteel mischief. It’s not. The producers found a place that looks like it could host a knitting circle and a hidden corpse—the beautiful Crown Golf Club in the Surrey countryside. Imagine a fancy golf resort where the biggest hazard isn’t the sand trap, but the possibility of accidentally overhearing a plot to frame the groundskeepers.

They dressed up the club’s existing buildings and cottages to look like a purpose-built retirement paradise. It’s the same trick your aunt uses when she arranges store-bought cookies on a fancy plate and calls them “homemade.” If you visit, you’ll see the same rolling greens where our heroes walk and talk, except now you’re probably just looking for your lost golf ball.

The Real Murder Hub: A Town That’s Seen Everything

The fictional village of Fairhaven, where the crimes take place, was actually filmed in the real town of Farnham in Surrey. This place is so charmingly English it probably apologizes to the postman when it rains. The streets are lined with those old, cobbled bits and pubs that look like they’ve been serving ale since the Magna Carta was signed.

Walking through Farnham, you half-expect to see Penny (played by Judi Dench, in a wig that’s basically a national treasure) arguing with a butcher about his alibi. It’s that real. One of the big scenes was shot outside the town’s Farnham Pottery, which is just a pottery shop—but now it’s forever stained in our minds as the place where a killer might have bought a clay sculpture used as a murder weapon.

The Pub That’s Basically a Main Character

Every good murder mystery needs a pub where suspects drink their secrets. For the film, the production team used a real, working pub called The Star in the village of Ripley. This is not a set; it’s a pub where real people have argued about football, complained about the Wi-Fi, and, presumably, never solved a single homicide.

If you go there, you can sit in the same booth where the actors pretended to be friends while secretly accusing each other of being the killer. Just don’t ask them for the murder board. They’ll probably just hand you the menu for their Sunday roast, which is honestly more satisfying than any fictional confession.

The Church That’s Seen Some Things

A crucial scene involving a funeral (because obviously, you can’t have a cozy murder without a suspicious funeral) was filmed at St. Mary's Church in Bishops Waltham. This church is old—like, “built before your great-great-grandparents were a twinkle in someone’s eye” old. The filmmakers didn’t even need to add cobwebs; the place has them built in.

You can almost imagine the church’s vicar saying, “We usually do weddings and baptisms here. But sure, let the film crew use it for a fake death. It’s been a slow month.” The gravestones outside are real, though. Don’t trip over one. The groundskeeper is probably still annoyed about the chalk markings they left last summer.

Why This All Feels Like Your Own Neighborhood

The magic of this filming location hunt is that none of these places are glamorous Hollywood sets. They’re the same kind of places you’d visit on a rainy weekend when you’re “just browsing” a charity shop. Surrey looks like the backdrop of every British postcard you’ve ever ignored, but now it’s the backdrop for a group of pensioners who are better detectives than your local police.

You can actually drive to these spots. You can. Park your car (badly, like the rest of us), buy a coffee, and stare at a bench where Joyce (played by the ever-doting Celia Imrie) might have waved a biscuit at a suspect. It’s the same feeling you get when you realize your local hardware store was featured in a movie—you suddenly feel important, like you’re in on the joke.

So next time you’re watching the film and you see that beautiful retirement village or that cozy pub, remember: it’s not a fantasy. It’s a golf club in Surrey and a pub in Ripley. Go visit. You might not solve a murder, but you’ll definitely find a good scone. And honestly, that’s a better ending than most mysteries offer.