Tom Felton is trading in casting spells for improperly firing rifles in Fackham Hall, a wild new comedy poking fun at the period drama genre. Taking the basis of Downton Abbey and going in direction akin to that of Airplane! and Another Period, the movie is a spoof centering on a wealthy family and their waiting staff who live in the titular sprawling manor.
Felton stars in the Fackham Hall cast as Archibald, a wealthy baron looking to marry Thomasin McKenzie’s Rose Davenport and secure their wealthy future, especially since they’re cousins. However, not only is Rose’s heart being gradually taken by newhire and pickpocket Eric Noone, played by Masters of the Air‘s Ben Radcliffe, but is also interrupted by the sudden murder of one of the Davenport family, which Eric is framed for, but leaving everyone a suspect.
Penned by celebrated comedian Jimmy Carr and his brother Patrick, as well as the creative trio Dawson Bros., Fackham Hall has garnered largely positive reviews from critics. Celebrating its unique mix of a genuine murder mystery full of twists and turns with the zany comedy of classic spoofs, the film currently holds an 83% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
Now, in anticipation of the film’s release, ScreenRant‘s Tatiana Hullender interviewed Tom Felton, Jim O’Hanlon, Katherine Waterston and Damian Lewis to discuss Fackham Hall. Reflecting on their various interests in joining the film, O’Hanlon began by explaining that he was approached by producer Kris Thykier after working together on the Prime Video rom-com Your Christmas or Mine?with the promise of a “fantastic script” that served as a spoof of British period dramas.
Having “immediate interest” after hearing that the script was penned by the Carrs and the Dawson Bros., he admitted there was a sense of reluctance as to whether the script would live up to its expectations, only to start laughing the moment he saw the title on the page. From there on, he became enthralled by how “packed full of jokes” the material was, having everything from “clever jokes” to “silly jokes,” “sophisticated jokes,” “totally unsophisticated jokes and pratfalls,” and even “background jokes“:
Jim O’Hanlon: I had done one spoof before, a series called A Touch of Cloth written by Charlie Brooker, which was a spoof on detectives with John Hannah. I’d had a brilliant time doing it, so when this came along, I also thought, “What a genius idea. I can’t believe it hasn’t been done on the big screen.” It’s a genius thing to take the mick out of in an affectionate way, I think. I hope there’s a lot of warmth and heart in the film and the characters. It’s not mean-spirited, although there are a lot of jokes that really rip the genre apart.
Describing the prior Emma adaptation as “one of my favorite jobs ever” and being “so proud of it,” O’Hanlon explained that he generally “find myself attracted to something I haven’t done before,” or in the case of Fackham Hall, “something on the opposite end of the spectrum to what I’ve done.” Finding that flipping the British period drama genre on its head with “a very different tone” felt like the perfect return to the type of storytelling for him:
Jim O’Hanlon: I used my costume designer from Emma, Rosalind Ebbutt, who was nominated for an Emmy for Emma. She was an absolute stickler on Fackham! Like, “Oh, they would have to change costumes, would never go from drinks to dinner all of a sudden.” I was like, “But it’s the very next scene! It’s going to look like a mistake.” She was like, “Yeah, but they just wouldn’t wear the same thing for drinks.” So, we had to navigate all of that.
Tom Felton’s Archibald looking dismissively while sitting in a chair in Fackham Hall
Looking at the movie’s balance of genuine period story with its jokes, which an executive producer estimated there to be “278 jokes in the film,” O’Hanlon assured that Fackham Hall was all about “affectionately poking a lot of fun.” Describing it as a “gift” to have the large-scale production of a period drama for a “really silly” movie, the director was thrilled to be part of something “hilarious.”
The director wasn’t the only one to have this feeling, either, as the entire Fackham Hall cast found themselves in amused awe of the script. Felton, who described the script as “absolute ludicrousness” and having fallen in love with it “within five pages,” was thrilled at how the Carrs and the Dawson Bros. combined two of the star’s childhood passions: “my mom’s love for Downton Abbey and Jane Austen period dramas, and then my dad’s passion for the silly humor that Brits are known for,” citing everything from Fawlty Towers to Monty Python and Only Fools and Heroes.
Waterston — whose most recent comedic outing came with a brief appearance in the short-lived HBO superhero satire The Franchise — was “snort-laughing” while reading the Fackham Hall script, being surprised at how “beautifully written” the movie was, even with its wild sense of humor:
Katherine Waterston: Really rude, loud, uncontrolled laughter. The jokes really came across on the page, and they set the scene well. It’s actually something we haven’t talked about much, just how beautifully crafted that script was. You talk about that when you’re doing dramatic films, but it really was a gorgeous script. I was just champing at the bit to get to say some of these lines she had.
Lewis — who recently returned to comedy with the film adaptation of the vampire novel The Radleys — recalled having “laughed out loud” with the script, describing it as being “very silly and clownish.” But, more importantly to the Emmy and Golden Globe winner, “it’s an uncynical piece of silliness” in the same vein of the Naked Gun and Airplane! movies, which he feels “we need a bit of that” more often on the screen.
The star also found one of Fackham Hall‘s biggest draws for him was to “be playing a role that just won’t die,” referring to Lord Davenport’s frequent encounters with death. Describing his character as “a man who, clearly, the writers are trying to kill from the get-go,” Lewis found it “very funny” that his character continued to survive his life-threatening injuries through the movie.
O’Hanlon Had A Very Unique Approach To Fleshing Out The Movie’s Cast
ScreenRant: The casting is obviously great, but I was especially surprised to see Damian Lewis as the patriarch, and of course, Tom Felton. How did those two join?
Jim O’Hanlon: Funnily enough, I play on a dad’s football team on Sunday mornings, so I knew Damian from there. We live quite close by in a little neighborhood in North London, and so I knew him a little bit from around the neighborhood and from playing football. I immediately thought, looking at actors that age, he would likely be the Hugh Bonneville if you were to do a new Downton Abbey. Damian is right up there as somebody who would be in the straight version. But I knew from talking to him that he knew where the funny was, and he would be able to find the comedy. We just sent the script to him, and I sent him a little text and went, “Damian, I don’t know if you’ve made the connection, but this is Jim from football. It would be great to have you on board.” He read it and said it was really funny. And I went, “Yeah, I know. I think if we play it straight, we can really make this something very funny.” Tom Felton came in day one, when he had one line, and said, “Are we playing this very straight?” I said, “Absolutely ramrod straight.” He said, “No winking at the camera?” “No, no, not at all.” “Okay, boss, I’ll do that.” He did his one line where he says, “That’s very kind of you, Lord Davenport,” and he just nailed it. I think he’s brilliant in it. He’s so funny, and people will be really surprised but also go, “Yeah, I can totally see that.” He plays the son-in-law, whom nobody wants her to marry, and I just love him. I think his performance is brilliant. You don’t hate him. What’s amazing about Tom, even though he is the odious son-in-law, is that he’s just so much fun to watch.
ScreenRant: I know you loved the script from the start, but what aspect of it did you feel you evolved most in production?
Jim O’Hanlon: What really attracted me to it was the variety of jokes that were within the first 5 or 10 minutes. You’ve got visual gags, you’ve got clever gags, you’ve got silly gags, you’ve got word play, you’ve got double entendres, and you’ve got quite a highbrow joke about the Bechtel Test. It was just such an array of jokes coming at you from all directions that I thought, “Wow, this has got everything.”
Tom Felton: I don’t think there are any films like that, let alone one set in a 19th-century manor! The myriad of clear visual gags and subtle wordplay that Jimmy and the Dawson Brothers brought so well into the script makes it so you almost don’t know quite which to laugh at first. I’ve seen it half a dozen times now, and I’m still finding little bits and pieces that I missed the first time.
Damian Lewis’ Lord Davenport looking in thought while talking in Fackham Hall
Jim O’Hanlon: I loved seeing that array of different types of jokes and humor, pratfalls and everything, set against this foreground story that could be straight out of Downton Abbey or Gosford Park. We looked at Upstairs, Downstairs as well, and other very serious British dramas. I thought, “Oh, that’s going to be brilliant to have. We’re going to be shooting two movies.” And at times it did feel like you were shooting two movies, one of which has been played dead straight – no winking, no looking at what’s happening behind, “I know it’s silly and stupid, but you’ve got to play it as if it’s dead serious.” The hardest one, I think, wasn’t even one that Tom had to do. It was Thomasin McKenzie and Katherine Waterston, who had to have this very intense discussion about the future of Fackham Hall, how it’s going to be taken from them, and they’re going to be out on the street. In the background, you’ve got Damian Lewis, one of our great classical actors, giving himself a Heimlich maneuver with a suit of armor. He’s staggering and coughing, and they’re going, “Do we not look at that at all?” And I said, “No, you don’t look at it at all.” He barged through them, and he coughed bread on them, but it was like shooting two movies! That was a big old challenge. The most interesting thing about the script was striking that tone. Can we do something that is played so straight and is at the same time so ridiculous and so hilariously funny? Hopefully, we have.
Tom Felton: Has Damian ever done comedy prior to this? I mean, has anyone ever done comedy to this level? Probably not, but it was fun just to see his comedic nature.
Jim O’Hanlon: I’ve always felt that people say, “Damian Lewis does very serious stuff, he doesn’t do comedy.” But, actually, if you look at something like Billions, there’s a very nice deft comedy in that show. I saw him doing a modern Shakespeare adaptation on TV with Sarah Parish many years ago, and he had comic chops.
Tom Felton: He definitely does, but I imagined it more as a sort of slick humor. Lord Davenport is obviously the Lord of the Manor, but he is probably the most ridiculous of the Davenports. And yet he does it with such air and grace. It’s hard to know whether to take him seriously or laugh out loud.
Jim O’Hanlon: That was one of the things I wanted to get. I’d always had this idea that if you came to it and turned the sound down, you would look at actors like Tom and Damian and Katherine, Emma Laird and Thomasin and Ben Radcliffe, and you’d think it was straight from a very serious period drama. I wanted that to happen until you went, “Did I just see a topless butler walk by? Did that other guy just fall down a manhole, and nobody even looked at him?”
Tom Felton: There’s a really touching moment between Ben and Thomasin, and then we cut to J.R.R. Tolkien on the toilet! It’s the sort of thing that’s like, “How are they going to pull this off?” And then when you see it, it’s as funny if not funnier than you thought.
Jim O’Hanlon: I think that was probably the question I was asked most on set by the actors. “We don’t react to that at all, do we?” No. Even though he is sh–ting his guts out, we don’t.
Tom Felton: I said a few times, “Are you sure you don’t want me to clock this or that?” “Nope, just play it straight.”
ScreenRant: Much like your Jane Austen predecessor, Mr. Collins, Archibald does not have luck with the cousins. Can you talk about his approach to Poppy versus Rose, if there is a difference at all? What’s not working for him?
Tom Felton: Why would you bring this up now? [Laughs] I mean, I’ve spent the last 12 months in therapy trying to get over Archie’s troubles. I’m not quite sure, personally. I think Archibald is a catch, and the ladies should be falling over themselves! I can’t tell you exactly without revealing too much of the plot, but he is unlucky with the ladies in the film, largely because they fall in love with other men.
Jim O’Hanlon: And also because he’s a dick!
Tom Felton: What?! That’s not how I was playing it at all! [Laughs] No, he’s a very entitled prick, for lack of a better word. He thinks that the whole world should revolve around him, as I’m sure people of that ilk did at the time, which only makes it more delightful when he’s slightly shortfall in regard to love with the ladies.
Jim O’Hanlon: But I love your loyalty to Archibald. Tom has a great loyalty to Archibald, and that’s what makes him a little bit more human. There are moments where he looks a little bit vulnerable, where you feel like, “Oh, my God, he’s just a stupid idiot.”
Tom Felton: “He wishes he were good with a gun, but he shoots Lord Davenport twice!” There are some nuggets of sheer “Aww, poor boy,” but not many. Not many. Largely, he’s just a slimy git.
Jim O’Hanlon: Unlike Tom Felton! It was not typecasting.
ScreenRant: Damian, you really do go through it physically in this film. What was that experience like on set, especially the extended sequence of people causing more and more harm to you?
Damian Lewis: I enjoy physical comedy. I have always enjoyed the clown as a concept, and what’s quite interesting about this film is that everybody has their clown moments — almost without exception. Certainly, when people are trying to kill you as often as they’re trying to kill Lord Davenport, there’s a physicality to that and an opportunity for clowning. I enjoyed it very much, culminating in that scene with Anna Maxwell Martin, which was impeccable.
ScreenRant: Though we are clowning for much of the film, Lady Davenport is in dire straits. Can you talk about her relationship with her husband, her children, and her concerns at the start of this film?
Katherine Waterston: I think she’s the person who gets things done in the house, or at least she perceives herself that way. She thinks her husband is a little bit useless, so she feels that the burden is all on her shoulders to save the family. That is kind of her life’s purpose, so it not going well is shocking for her. It’s terrifying, and the prospect of a different kind of life is totally bewildering to her. It was really fun to play all of that. You come at it just like you would a dramatic role, and I think we really trusted the strength of the comedy on the page. It was kind of our duty to build the characters and not try to get in the way of the jokes and just let them roll.
Thomasin McKenzie’s Rose talking while surprised in Fackham Hall
ScreenRant: Who had the easiest time keeping a straight face, and who had the hardest time?
Katherine Waterston: Thomasin was quite good at keeping a straight face.
Damian Lewis: Yeah, she had good discipline.
Katherine Waterston: And also you!
Damian Lewis: You, on the other hand… [Laughs]
Katherine Waterston: I think the thing about Thomasin is that she could transform her surprise in the moment, where she might almost morph into a kind of bewildered expression or look of shock. She had a good technique for holding it together. But for the most part, when they called cut, it was an act of mercy. The minute that they called cut, everybody would just be falling out of their chairs. It’s just such a fun way to work, with a great ensemble like this where everybody’s so hilarious. It was a delight to see everybody thriving in it.
Be sure to check out our other Fackham Hall interview with Thomasin McKenzie and Ben Radcliffe!
Fackham Hall is now in theaters!
Release Date
December 5, 2025
Director
Jim O’Hanlon
Writers
Jimmy Carr, Patrick Carr, Steve Dawson, Tim Inman, Andrew Dawson
