Care home residents star in own mystery movie

The cast of the Monkscroft Thursday Club, written by Judith Green (left)

A group of care home residents have written and starred in a mystery movie after being inspired by a bestselling book series.

Judith Green wrote the script for the 20-minute Monkscroft Thursday Club film and starred in it along with four other residents aged between 72 and 88.

The plot follows the group as they search for a missing diamond ring.

Doreen Paisley, home manager of Monkscroft Care Centre in Cheltenham, said: "Individuals in care homes, like the residents of Monkscroft, have so much talent, so many skills and there's so much they want to share with everyone."

Ms Green said she was "relieved" that the film got laughs during the premiere

After it was decided a murder-focused movie was "not appropriate" for a care home, Ms Green chose to simply write a mystery, inspired by Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club series.

Ms Green said the script went through "multiple rewrites" to make lines shorter for the cast members who have dementia.

Sarah Jones, who played "Agatha Crispie", called out lines for other cast members to repeat if they could not remember, which was then edited out during post-production.

The production process took five months and a red carpet premiere was held at the care home, which family members were invited to.

"I was really worried that I'd let them all down by writing a script that wasn't funny and, even when we did the red carpet premiere day, I was shaking," Ms Green said.

"I was so relieved when they laughed."

The movie was filmed and edited on an iPhone.

Other cast members included Fred McKnight as Hercules Barrow, Peter James as Harry Holmes, and Patricia Jeal as Miss Marbles.

Ms Jeal said: "It was great fun, meeting people I hadn't met in the home, like Peter, who is in a different unit downstairs. We've all got on very well."