‘We’re rock solid’: Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan deliver the Thursday Murder Club reunion of dreams

Ever since we finished watching the film version of The Thursday Murder Club, we’ve missed our dear pals Elizabeth, Ron, Ibrahim and Joyce. Sure, we can just rewatch it. Or reread the books. But still... we want more!

Well, in excellent news, Dame Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan, who played Elizabeth Best and Ron Ritchie, respectively, in the film, are here to deliver. They’ve given us a mini Thursday Murder Club reunion – and while we’ll have to wait for the full deal with Celia Imrie and Sir Ben Kingsley, this has still brought enough joy to tide us over.

Helen and Pierce reunited on the red carpet of the premiere of MobLand season 2, in which they both star. In case you’re not aware of MobLand (you’re missing out!), it’s a drama about two warring crime families. It’s created by Guy Ritchie and has a cast jam-packed with stars, including Tom Hardy as Harry Da Souza, Helen Mirren as matriarch of the family on the other side Maeve Harrigan and Pierce Brosnan as Maeve’s husband, Conrad Harrigan.

With plenty of family drama and secrets, lies and general tension, you can think of it as the ideal evening watch as we enter autumn. Season two will kick off on Friday 18 September, so you've got a week to get up to speed with a binge-watch of season one (available on Paramount+ and Prime Video).

For the premiere last night, Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan were joined by Tom Hardy and the show’s creators to celebrate, looking very chummy on the red carpet (perhaps to smooth over rumours of a rift between Tom and the rest of the cast). Pierce and Helen shared a special moment at the after-party, having a cuddle and a laugh together. Were they reminiscing about being a married couple on-screen or their time on The Thursday Murder Club? We hope both.

The event also saw the cast address those rumours about Tom Hardy being tricky to work with. Pierce Brosnan told PA: ‘Oh my God, it was a storm in a teacup, really. I love the dude. I love Tom Hardy. I’m a massive fan of the man’s work, truly.’

Pierce went on to describe the experience of filming the show more generally, saying that everyone working on MobLand is ‘rock solid’. ‘We are rock solid as a company, as a family,’ the Mamma Mia! actor shared. ‘Everyone shows up for work, and everybody’s just there on the spot. It moves very fast, so it’s not like we go out and socialise and go to the pub or anything like that. Everyone goes home to their families and, before you know it, you’ve done 10 episodes.’

Tom Hardy chimed in to give a special shoutout to Helen and Pierce’s bond, saying, ‘Just watching people enjoy themselves and watching a good team work together and having fun. That exists in the MobLand tribe, and Dame Helen and Pierce are of that family, so in that respect, not only to be a part of it, but to watch and observe them still enjoying themselves and pushing the envelope is brilliant.’

It sounds like filming was a great time – and judging from the photos of Helen and Pierce, that friendship is still going strong. Helen confirmed this, telling PA: ‘I didn’t know what I was letting myself in for quite honestly, when Pierce and I both agreed to sign up for it; neither of us really knew what we were signing up for at all. But we knew it was Guy Ritchie, so we knew that would be fun. We knew we’d be with each other and we knew that would be fun. Then we discovered the scripts and then we discovered the writing of Jeff Butterworth and the whole thing just sort of took off like a jet engine. We just sort of jumped in and had fun with it.’

Dame Helen also shared why she’s such a fan of the show: ‘It’s the strength of the women that is so powerful to the story. They all have agency. They’re in the story. They’re not peripheral to the story. They’re not there just to be a pretty face or to explicate things; they’re right in the plot, which is great to see.’