Fackham Hall

The Davenports have been owners of Fackham Hall for generations, but patriarch Lord Davenport has no surviving male heir. The Davenports' daughter Poppy is due to marry their cousin, Archibald, which will keep the Hall in the family. Thief and orphan Eric Noone is given a message to bring to Lord Davenport, but when he arrives he is presumed to be an applicant for a hall boy position and takes the job, forgetting about the letter. At the wedding between Poppy and Archibald, the vicar displays a habit of poorly timing the punctuation in his sermons. Suddenly, Poppy flees the church, declaring her love for local manure salesman Lionel. Lady Davenport pushes her other daughter Rose to marry Archibald, but she is repulsed by his chauvinistic manner and is instead attracted to Eric, and the two spend the night together.

In the morning, Lord Davenport is discovered dead. Inspector Watt arrives and determines that one of the wedding guests in the house likely committed the crime. Eric is accused after he is discovered to have robbed Lord Davenport's desk, but he refuses to use Rose as his alibi and shame her. He is arrested and thrown in jail, while Rose reluctantly agrees to marry Archibald to save Fackham Hall.

In jail, Eric rediscovers the letter previously given to him and reads it, learning that he is the long-lost child of Lord Davenport's brother, thus a cousin of the Davenports and the rightful heir to Fackham Hall. He escapes confinement, intending to head to the church to stop Rose's marriage to Archibald, but is stopped by Mrs. McAllister, Fackham Hall's housekeeper, who reveals that she framed Eric for the murder. She was having an affair with Lord Davenport, and during an argument about him firing his manservant/illegitimate son and replacing him with Eric, Lord Davenport had accidentally been stabbed, shot, poisoned, and strangled. Inspector Watt overhears the confession and arrests Mrs. McAllister, and Eric reveals his true parentage. Though Archibald attempts to shoot his long-lost brother, he misses and is taken away, and Eric and Rose marry instead.

The epilogue reveals that Archibald tried to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head but missed; Poppy, breaking family tradition, married her second cousin after rejecting 22 grooms; Lady Davenport spent the rest of her life campaigning for the repealing of women's right to vote; the vicar died in a bunker in Berlin in April 1945; Eric and Rose went on honeymoon in Blackpool; and Lord Davenport remained dead.

Fackham Hall is a parody of traditional period dramas like Downton Abbey (2010) and Gosford Park (2001).^[6] Screenwriter Jimmy Carr said Fackham Hall was a mashup of period drama and comedy.^[7]

Principal photography began in Yorkshire in November 2024 and was completed in late 2024.^[5][8] Additional cast members announced were Damian Lewis, Ben Radcliffe, and Tom Felton.^[9] Additional filming was done at Knowsley Hall in Liverpool, and Thornton Hough, Wirral.^[10][11]

David Arnold was hired to compose two original songs and the score. Arnold is also receiving a "music by" credit in the film, while Oli Julian is credited as a "composer".^[12]

Fackham Hall was released in the United States by Bleecker Street on December 5, 2025,^[13] and in the United Kingdom by Entertainment Film Distributors on December 12.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 76% of 50 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "With a gleefully affectionate tone, Fackham Hall barrels through a dizzying amount of story and nonstop gags, occasionally overwhelming itself but ultimately winning out through its fearless comic spirit."^[14] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 54 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.^[15]