Richard Osman has really gone up in the world since he first came to the public’s attention as a Pointless game show sidekick.
And now the Daily Mail can reveal the TV star turned best-selling author has bought a magnificent townhouse with elevated views across a landscape protected by an Act of Parliament.
Unsurprisingly, the five-bedroom property in London came with a hefty price tag – with Osman splashing out a staggering £9million to snap it up.
Osman, 55, and Doctor Who actress wife Ingrid Oliver, 48, are joint owners of the property which is a huge upgrade from their former £1million house in nearby Chiswick.
The move comes after Steven Spielberg bought the rights of Osman’s first crime novel The Thursday Murder Club and turned it into a big budget Netflix movie starring Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan.
While Osman’s new four-storey mid-terrace property appears to be a somewhat conventional Georgian home from the front, our exclusive pictures show it’s been given a spectacular modern makeover.
A state-of-the-art kitchen and dining area with huge glass doors opening up to the garden has been added to the back of the period property.
There’s also a large contemporary bathroom upstairs and an impressive master suite which has glass walls on one side and is accessed via a gangway.
Richard Osman, 55, and his Doctor Who actress wife Ingrid Oliver, 48, have moved from their former £1million house in nearby Chiswick into a lovely new home
The couple have snapped up this sprawling five-bedroom home with a living area of 4,456 square feet for £9million
The move comes after Steven Spielberg bought the rights of Osman’s first crime novel The Thursday Murder Club and turned it into a big budget Netflix movie
Richard began dating Ingrid Oliver, 48, in 2021 when she appeared on his celebrity BBC Two quiz show Richard Osman’s House Of Games
With the added extension, the house has a living area of 4,456 square feet making it one of the largest and most expensive properties in the area.
But it is the spectacular panoramic views which make it really stand out – and helps to explain its surprisingly high value.
Immortalised by artists including Constable, Turner, Reynolds and Gainsborough, the ‘unrivalled landscape’ of the meandering River Thames is the only view in England protected by parliament.
In 1902 an act was passed to foil the planned development of a housing estate on the other side of the river following an opposition campaign backed by many artists.
Osman and Ingrid – who played the role of Joanna Meadowcroft in The Thursday Murder Club film – are said to be quietly settling into their new home in the iconic location where they live with their rescue cats Liesl and Lottie.
Previous residents in the street have included Sir Mick Jagger and fellow Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood as well as The Who guitarist Pete Townshend.
Hinting at ‘a big move’ in a podcast towards the end of last year, Osman told how he was finding it difficult to gear up for a significant family relocation.
He told co-presenter Marina Hyde: ‘I don’t deal well with transitional periods, I don’t deal well with interregnums, I find it very, very difficult.
‘Until everything is normal again I will be very, very discombobulated.’
Osman also complained about the delivery schedule of furniture retailers explaining how it would be 16 weeks before his new sofas would arrive.
Bespectacled Osman, who is 6ft 7in, became an unlikely TV star in 2009 when he first appeared alongside presenter Alexander Armstrong in Pointless.
The couple went on to tie the knot in a ‘magical’ ceremony at Goodwood House, West Sussex in December 2022
After studying politics and sociology at the University of Cambridge he started out at production company Endemol where he worked as an executive producer, script writer and creative director working on British game shows.
His credits included 8 Out Of 10 cats, Whose Line Is It Anyway? and Deal Or No Deal.
He left Endemol in 2020 and quit his long-standing role on Pointless two years later after 13 years on the show to focus on his writing career.
Osman – whose older brother Mat is the bass player in rock band Suede – continues to present celebrity BBC Two quiz show Richard Osman’s House Of Games which launched in 2017.
It was during filming of an episode of the programme that Osman, who has two grown up children from his first marriage, first met Ingrid in 2021.
He got to know her with the help of Olympic rowing champion Matthew Pinsent who had also appeared on the programme and persuaded Osman to join them for an after show drink.
Osman confessed he had ‘pined’ after Ingrid for over a year after they had previously exchanged a message on social media.
Describing how they met Osman has said: ‘I was aware of Ingrid from social media and thought she was very funny, but beyond a single tweet we’d never communicated.
‘I asked our mutual friend, the comedian Lou Sanders, to check if Ingrid was available. She wasn’t. Twelve months later, in 2021, Ingrid was a guest on my quiz show House Of Games.
‘This time Lou told me Ingrid was available, so I spent a long day in front of the cameras desperately trying not to flirt. I made eye contact less with her than any other guest ever.’
He told The Mail on Sunday’s You magazine: ‘I liked her very much but I never socialise after shows because I’ve got another one the next day.
‘Happily Matthew Pinsent was on the same show. He’s such a lovely fella, and he said, “Let’s go for drinks,” and I said, “You know, this evening I think I will.”‘
Osman said he immediately knew that he and Ingrid would walk down the aisle, adding: ‘It was never not going to happen.
‘It was a very pleasant surprise, but we were both ready for it. Our hearts were open, and if your heart’s open the opportunity is there.’
The couple moved in together just weeks after meeting on set.
Ingrid went on to admit she had been single when Osman had first enquired but she was not ready for a relationship as she was trying to have a child through IVF.
She said: ‘When Richard first asked Lou if I was single, I was.
‘I was aware of him from Twitter and the telly, and I thought he was a lovely, kind, clever man, but I’d decided to try IVF and thought, I can’t do this if I’m dating.
‘But even then – and I don’t want to sound stalkerish – I had an inkling we’d get together later.
‘I tried IVF three times (it was brutal) before accepting defeat. When Richard got back in touch, I’d made my peace with that process and was ready to move on.’
Their relationship finally became public knowledge in November 2021, when they stepped out together holding hands in London during a shopping trip.
The couple went on to tie the knot in a ‘magical’ ceremony at Goodwood House, West Sussex in December 2022.
He said at the time: ‘The most magical, joyful day on Saturday with my beautiful wife.
‘Surrounded by wonderful friends and family, a day full of love and laughter. We’re so, so happy.’
Osman described the wedding as ‘very un-showbizzy’ and instead of presents they asked guests to make donations to the Book Trust charity – raising £9,789.
Richard has previously spoken about not enjoying transitional periods – and feeling ‘very discombobulated’ during them so he will be hoping to settle in to their new home
Osman’s new four-storey mid-terrace property appears to be a somewhat conventional Georgian home from the front, but our pictures show it’s been given a spectacular makeover
Appearing on the Christmas Day edition of Desert Island Discs later that month Osman said: ‘I’m happy with myself, I’ve got these beautiful kids, I’ve met the woman who I’m going to be with for the rest of my life.
‘That thing of competition and ambition, you soon realise that rocket fuel disappears and it’s about happiness and my kids bring me happiness and Ingrid brings me happiness.’
Ingrid – the daughter of a German father and former Conservative MP Jo Gideon – told how she had at first been reluctant to get married as her parents had wed ‘eight times in total between them’.
She said: ‘I’d seen marriages not working, so I never wanted to make that commitment unless I knew for sure.’
She went on to describe Osman as ‘the light of my life, man of dreams, unicorn husband’.
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