Pickpocket Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) lands a job at a strange English manor house. He quickly rises through the ranks, and a forbidden romance with lady of the house Rose Davenport (Thomasin McKenzie) blossoms. But when an unexpected murder occurs, Eric gets framed.
This parody of 1930’s country house dramas was co-written by Jimmy Carr, along with Patrick Carr and brothers Stave and Andrew Johnson. Not being a fan of Carr’s work, I approached this spoof with some scepticism. It turned out to be a mixed bag with more jokes missing than hitting but as they come thick and fast, I spent a lot of the time chuckling. As is often the way with parody movies like this, a lot of the funnier moments are the throwaway or background gags that work better than the more obvious ones. It also has a bit too much repetition and runs out of steam towards the end.
McKenzie, though, is a joy throughout, Damian Lewis is spot on as the family patriarch, Katherine Waterston is nicely brittle as his wife and John Thomson is funny as a prisoner. This is not for everyone, and no one else was laughing in my screening, but if you like silly humour or the Carry Ons, there should be something here for you.
Rating: 6 out of 10