Title – Fackham Hall (2025)

Director – Jim O’Hanlon (Your Christmas or Mine 2)

Cast – Thomasin McKenzie, Ben Radcliffe, Damian Lewis, Katherine Waterston, Tom Felton

Plot – The Davenport family must find a way to marry off one of their daughters should they wish to keep their life of high society within the grounds of Fackham Hall alive.  

“Born to aristocracy. Bred for idiocy”

Review by Eddie on 25/02/2026

While it’s not high-brow stuff, Fackham Hall’s Naked Gun like approach to poke fun at the likes of Downton Abbey while sprinkling in some satire of Agatha Christie whodunits makes it a winning experience that proves the world is ready for more comedy of this ilk.

Following on fresh on the heels of the successful Liam Neeson led reimagining of the Naked Gun series and arriving mere months before another Scary Movie comes our way to make horror funny once more, Hall, a brainchild of well-known comedian Jimmy Carr, is a deceptively smart take-down of British drama that may have a flimsy central plot but becomes a winning experience regardless with its high hit ratio of laughs that come thick and fast across its 90 minute runtime.

Following the exploits of the well to do Davenport family, who are desperate to see one of their daughters married off to a nice available cousin to ensure that their wealth and mansion remains in tact, Hall goes all in as it targets the monarchy, religion, world wars, capital cities and chimney sweeps amongst many others providing the type of experience that makes no apologies for firing from the hip and going for broke virtually from the moment it begins through to its end credits.

Employing an array of able bodied and willing cast members that includes child star Thomasin McKenzie as marriage candidate Rose, Ben Radcliffe as the unfortunate Eric Noone, Damian Lewis and Katherine Waterston playing against type as the gullible Lord and Lady Davenport and Tom Felton as the poem loving Archibald, director Jim O’Hanlon had access to some great performers to bring his film to life, even if they are all overshadowed by a scene-stealing Carr as a local priest and Jason Done as JRR Tolkien (the writer) and PTSD suffering Ramon Tikaram as war-wounded Darvesh Khalid.

One’s enjoyment of Hall is going to depend entirely on how willing they are to mix their more sophisticated jokes in with the downright juvenile and silly but whether or not one agrees with O’Hanlon and his teams approach to proceedings there’s no denying that everyone involved here appears to be entirely on board and it’s just a downright joy to see such films coming our way again after years of being oppressed by consumer sentiment and a downturn in demand.

It might not make its way into classic genre territory, but cult classic status remains firmly in sight of Hall as it discovers a wider audience at home in the coming month/years and if for nothing else, Hall remains a must-see if purely to witness a piano recital for the ages.

Final Say –

A fast-paced and relentlessly energetic comedic exercise that takes the Naked Gun approach to high-class British society and period dramas, Fackham Hall is a highly enjoyable experience that should live out a long shelf life in the years to come.

3 1/2 Trainspotting posters out of 5