– A Gloriously Unhinged Spoof
of British Period Drama –
by Damianista | Fan Fun With Damian Lewis | December 5, 2025
Christmas came early this year in the form of Fackham Hall, Damian’s gloriously unhinged spoof of the British period drama. I managed to catch an early screening on December 3 — but only after Lewisto, my husband, asked ChatGPT whether it was medically safe for me to watch a comedy so soon after surgery. I know, I know! His fear was that I might laugh so hard my stitches would burst. Honestly, the conversation was almost as funny as the movie itself. And I’m happy to report that my stitches remained intact— my composure, less so.
Going into the film, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’m not a huge fan of recent American comedies — give me oldies like Some Like It Hot or The Apartment any day — but I absolutely adore British humour. That perfect dryness, that glorious deadpan delivery. The kind of humor where someone says something outrageous with the emotional tone of a weather forecast. The cast of Fackham Hall gets this completely: the straighter their faces, the harder you laugh.
Warning: If you prefer to go into the movie knowing absolutely nothing, stop reading now and come back after you’ve seen it — you’ll enjoy reliving the jokes even more. That said, I’m not revealing in my review anything beyond what’s already shown in the official trailer, the publicly shared photos, and the publicly shared plot. And special thanks go to Gingersnap for reading this before publication and suggesting a few edits.
I grew up on Airplane! and The Naked Gun, so I’ve always loved a good spoof — at least when it’s done well. And Fackham Hall does it beautifully. It grabs every “upstairs–downstairs” cliché you can think of and joyfully turns them upside down. Tragic family backstories, strict inheritance rules, way too many servants, stiff British manners, forbidden romances, upstairs-and-downstairs affairs, uncivilized American guests, hunting parties — the movie takes all of it and pushes everything to hilariously over-the-top extremes.
Behind the scenes, Fackham Hall brings together a top-notch team of British talent. It is directed by Jim O’Hanlon, known for his sharp storytelling and work across both film and television – and we love him even more now that we know he’s playing football with Damian in a dads’ soccer group 🙂 The film is produced by Kris Thykier, Danny Perkins, and Mila Cottray under Mews Films and Two & Two Pictures, with a focus on bold, high-quality British comedies. The screenplay comes from comedian Jimmy Carr, making his feature writing debut, co-written with his brother Patrick Carr and the Dawson Brothers, who are known for their clever, fast-paced humor. Jimmy Carr is also playing a priest with a Hitler mustache, and oh man, he steals the scenes in which he is in – just simply breaking up his sentences in a way that accidentally gives every holy message a very unholy twist.
Director O’Hanlon says in a recent interview that the movie contains close to 300 jokes. I probably caught a fraction of them, and I’m still trying to figure out whether Rose’s car license plate is part of a joke or if I’m just imagining things. Knowing this movie, it’s probably a joke.
Let’s start with the title. Fackham Hall — which, as Jimmy Carr jokes, “if you say in a posh English accent it might be misunderstood”… Hahaha. The name alone tells you the movie will be full of scandal, mischief, and general chaos behind those grand doors. And speaking of posh accents, it’s hard not to notice how much the Davenport family feels like a fun, twisted version of the Crawleys from Downton Abbey — big house, fancy problems, and a whole team of servants trying to keep things together. Even Hugh Bonneville seemed to catch the similarity: when Damian posted about Fackham Hall on Instagram, Bonneville replied with the monocle emoji!
The story follows the wealthy Davenport family and their servants as secrets, scandals, and all sorts of nonsense come to light in wonderfully over-the-top ways. Even the mansion’s welcome sign joins in the joke: Incestus ad infinitum – a reference to the continuous family inbreeding with the cousin marrying and all.
It is 1931, the middle of the Great Depression, and the Davenport household is in crisis. Lord and Lady Davenport — Humphrey and Prudence — once believed their estate was secure thanks to their four sons. Tragically (and hilariously), every single one of them has died. And to make matters even more absurd, they were named George, John, Paul, and Ringo — a complete Beatles wipeout, if you will! And this is exactly the film’s sense of humor.
With no male heirs left to keep Fackham Hall, their daughter Poppy is meant to marry her first cousin Archibald — or in her father’s words:
“She’s, after courting for a long time, finally found the right cousin.”
When I saw the trailer, I thought Poppy was the elder, more traditional daughter maneuvered into this marriage. But the movie flips this: Poppy is actually the younger one, and Rose is the “elder” daughter at the ripe old age of 23, which Lady Davenport treats as if she’s halfway to the grave.
Enter Eric Noone: war orphan, pickpocket, and accidental employee. He arrives at Fackham Hall with an important letter for Lord Davenport. But the butler, Cyril, assumes he’s there to apply for the hall boy position and immediately hires him – they need staff for the wedding weekend – and Eric forgets about the letter.
Guests soon arrive, including Lord Davenport’s Oxford classmate J.R.R. Tolkien, gathering inspiration for characters we definitely recognize. But the wedding collapses spectacularly, the family invites the guests to stay for the weekend and suddenly Rose — not Poppy — is expected to marry Archibald to save the estate.
But Rose has eyes for Eric. And the tone of the blossoming romance isn’t just sweet; it is sweet but also it has comedy, farce and chaos.
And Rose’s not the only one enchanted by Eric. Lord Davenport has eyes for the new hall boy, too. After watching Eric closely at the shooting party, he promotes him to valet — where his duties include holding olives, carrying drinks, shooting guns for Lord Davenport, and — occasionally — picking his nose, too!
Lady Davenport, ever practical, warns Rose:
“Let’s be realistic. Your father is not going to live forever.”
Read the rest of the original article at Fan Fun With Damian Lewis.