Fackham Hall is an absolute riot – the most gloriously unhinged period comedy I’ve seen in years!
Imagine Downton Abbey crashing headfirst into Airplane! and Monty Python, with a generous splash of The Naked Gun thrown in for good measure. That’s exactly what you get with this 2025 spoof, and it works brilliantly. Set in a lavish 1930s English manor house, the film follows lovable rogue Eric Noone (a perfectly cast Ben Radcliffe) as he blunders his way into a job as a porter at Fackham Hall. What starts as a simple upstairs-downstairs romance with the youngest Davenport daughter, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie, luminous and hilarious), quickly spirals into a madcap murder mystery full of mistaken identities, forbidden love, and one very inconvenient corpse.
The jokes come fast and furious – some groan-worthy, most side-splitting – and the script (co-written by Jimmy Carr and the Dawson Brothers) never lets up. Director Jim O’Hanlon nails the tone: it lovingly recreates the stuffy elegance of classic British period dramas while cheerfully torching every cliché. The whole cast is game for the absurdity. Damian Lewis is a scene-stealing delight as the pompous Lord Davenport, Katherine Waterston and Tom Felton bring deliciously wicked energy, and even Jimmy Carr pops up as a priest whose sermons somehow manage to be both holy and unholy at the same time.
What makes Fackham Hall so special is how much affection it has for the genre it’s spoofing. It’s not mean-spirited; it’s gleefully affectionate chaos. The production design is stunning (those costumes and sets look like they cost a fortune), the score is perfectly pompous, and every frame drips with period detail that makes the slapstick even funnier.
If you’re in the mood for smart, silly, laugh-out-loud comedy that never takes itself seriously, run – don’t walk – to Fackham Hall. It’s the kind of movie that leaves you grinning like an idiot and quoting lines for days. Five stars, easily my favorite comedy of the year. Tea will be spilled, crumpets will be crumpeted, and you will be thoroughly entertained.
