Nerdly » ‘Fackham Hall’ DVD Review

19th Mar2026

‘Fackham Hall’ DVD Review

by Henry Godfrey-Evans

Stars: Thomasin McKenzie, Ben Radcliffe, Damian Lewis, Hayley Mills, Erin Austen, Tom Felton, Emma Laird, Katherine Waterston, Anna Maxwell Martin, Tom Goodman-Hill, Jimmy Carr, Sue Johnston | Written by Steve Dawson, Andrew Dawson, Tim Inman, Jimmy Carr, Patrick Carr | Directed by Jim O’Hanlon

Fackham Hall is a spoof of your mother’s favourite period drama, making fun of British aristocrats sitting on giant estates and poking fun at anything they can find. The figurehead of ‘The Davenports’ is Damian Lewis; he’s rocking a ridiculous hairdo that looks like a pair of gelled ram horns. I’ve also seen and heard that Jimmy Carr was involved in the writing team.

The result? It’s Monty Python levels of “silly” and a volume of jokes that Seth MacFarlane would be proud of. Seriously, each scene was about 10 punchlines, 3 doses of physical comedy, and 2 visual gags in the background that you might not catch.

You’re wondering if Fackham Hall passed my laugh test, aren’t you? It did, yes. I think about 3 audible laughs, which puts it in the “good” category. For context, I watch films like a mannequin with bad posture. Therefore, a laugh is quite a rare thing.

However, the curse with feature-length comedies is that you can’t just fire a semi-automatic dopamine turret for hours on end. We tend to demand that a story be interwoven into the fabric of things. So, what story do you give such dull thumb-twiddlers then? Answer: incestuous marriage controversy. Although it is not the incest that’s causing all the controversy, obviously.

Unfortunately, while people want a plot, we all know bizarre comedies aren’t really about their plots. Therefore, the plot is half-baked; therefore, nobody cares about the plot, therefore, the plot leeches at the comedy and its creative freedom. Which means while the jokes remained funny, the novelty aged like a dog toy. My smile dropped a little bit an hour in, then it would come and go.

Another thing that I’m only realising now, but the only consistently hilarious cast member was Damian Lewis. The rest seemed like a solid casting for a real drama, but lacked that bit of eccentricity needed to make a spoof truly sing. I think the jokes themselves ended up doing a fair amount of the heavy lifting, and I would have preferred to get a few more laughs solely from the actors’ line delivery.

I’m a British man, and like all Brits, I think there are a few too many American comedies dominating my cinema schedule. At least I’d like them to be equal parts. What I’m saying is I want to encourage studios to keep making these films, as we have the best sense of humour in the world, and we waste it when we don’t make enough solid comedies.

Decent attempt, but keep going, chaps.