Fackham Hall is a new R-rated comedy that makes fun of British period dramas like Downton Abbey. It comes out in theaters on December 5, 2025, and it has slapstick humor, a forbidden romance, and a mystery twist. Damian Lewis plays Lord Davenport and Katherine Waterston plays his wife. The movie is about pickpocket Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) who breaks into the fancy manor and causes chaos with the eldest daughter’s disastrous wedding and an unexpected murder.
Fackham Hall, directed by Jim O’Hanlon and co-written by Jimmy Carr, is a screwball romance between Thomasin McKenzie as the rebellious Rose Davenport and Eric. It mixes Monty Python silliness with Agatha Christie mysteries. Tom Felton plays the scheming cousin Archibald, and Hayley Mills tells the story in a funny way. Anna Maxwell Martin and Sue Johnston also have small roles that add to the humor. Critics say that the cast can easily switch from serious drama to silly jokes, and the setting is a lavish Liverpool estate that looks like Downton Abbey.
Eric gets a job at Fackham Hall by lying about it, and he falls in love with Rose while things are going wild upstairs and downstairs. Then a body shows up and makes him look like the killer, which gets a bumbling Poirot-like inspector (Tom Goodman-Hill) involved. Recurring jokes about mispronounced titles (“Fuck ’em all”) and flatulence add to the broad comedy, which turns into a ridiculous inheritance drama. Critics like the story’s flow and the funny parts, but some jokes get old.
