Pierce Brosnan thought of Ray Winstone when first reading his part in The Thursday Murder Club

Pierce Brosnan thought that Ray Winstone would be more appropriate for his part in The Thursday Murder Club.

The 72-year-old actor plays retired trade union leader Ron Ritchie in the movie adaptation of Richard Osman's best-selling novel of the same name but admits that he couldn't help but feel that the Sexy Beast star would be great for the role in Chris Columbus' film.

Speaking to the BBC, Brosnan said: "I never asked Chris why he cast me. I thought: 'This is Ray Winstone, bro.'"

However, the former James Bond actor kept his thought to himself.

He said: "(I remember thinking) 'Don't say anything Pierce, just keep going.'"

The Thursday Murder Club book series has been hugely successful in recent times and Brosnan says that the cast - which also includes Dame Helen Mirren, Sir Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie - felt a big sense of "responsibility" to do the retired sleuths justice in the movie adaptation.

He said: "It's a huge responsibility when you have an audience and the world waiting to see these characters."

Mirren was the top choice of many readers to portray former spy Elizabeth Best and she confessed to thinking in the same way when reading the book.

The 80-year-old actress said: "Embarrassingly, I did. When you read that book, you think immediately this could be a movie and then, if it is, I wonder if they'll ever approach me to play that role, because I'd love to play it. It was sort of a bit of a miracle for me when they did."

On the other hand, Imrie didn't read the book until after she was cast as retired nurse Joyce Meadowcroft.

She recalled: "Dear friends of mine occasionally said: 'You know, you'd be awfully good for this, but I'm quite superstitious.'

"I didn't want to spook things. The minute I was cast I ran down to the bookshop."

The cosy crime film will only be in cinemas for a week before becoming available to stream on Netflix and Mirren finds it "disappointing" that the picture can only be seen in 30 cinemas for a limited time.

The Oscar-winning actress said: "I think it would have done well in the cinema and I wish it was staying for a little longer."

The leading quartet shot a hospice scene on their opening day of filming and Imrie felt that it captured the essence of the older characters at the heart of the story.

The 73-year-old star said: "It was full of what hangs over the story, not in a morbid way, but we are around the bed of someone that is dying and we're all of an age where that is going to happen."

Kingsley, 81, added: "It was the starting point, I think it gives the film some ballast. It's not a little comedy. It has some layers to it... a base note that runs through it."