Fackham Hall – This Brisk, Humorous Downton Abbey Spoof Which Is Pleasantly Lightweight.
It could be the feeling of uncertain days in the air: subsequent to a lengthy span of dormancy, the parody is staging a resurgence. The recent season saw the revival of this unserious film style, which, in its finest form, skewers the grandiosity of overly serious dramas with a torrent of heightened tropes, sight gags, and dumb-brilliant double entendres.
Frivolous eras, so it goes, beget deliberately shallow, gag-packed, welcome light entertainment.
A Recent Offering in This Silly Wave
The most recent of these silly send-ups is Fackham Hall, a parody of Downton Abbey that pokes fun at the highly satirizable pretensions of wealthy English costume epics. Co-written by British-Irish comedian Jimmy Carr and helmed by Jim O'Hanlon, the feature has plenty of inspiration to mine and exploits every bit of it.
Starting with a ludicrous start to a preposterous conclusion, this entertaining aristocratic caper fills all of its runtime with gags and sketches that vary from the puerile all the way to the authentically hilarious.
A Mimicry of The Gentry and Staff
Much like Downton, Fackham Hall delivers a spoof of very self-important rich people and overly fawning help. The story revolves around the hapless Lord Davenport (portrayed by an enjoyably affected Damian Lewis) and his book-averse wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Following the loss of their children in separate tragic accidents, their plans fall upon marrying off their daughters.
One daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has secured the aristocratic objective of an engagement to the right first cousin, Archibald (an impeccably slimy Tom Felton). But once she backs out, the onus transfers to the unattached elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), who is an old maid of a woman" and and possesses dangerously modern beliefs about a woman's own mind.
Its Comedy Works Best
The parody fares much better when sending up the suffocating expectations placed on early 20th-century women – a subject frequently explored for earnest storytelling. The archetype of idealized ladylike behavior offers the richest material for mockery.
The storyline, as is fitting for an intentionally ridiculous parody, is of lesser importance to the jokes. Carr delivers them coming at a pleasantly funny rate. There is a murder, a bungled inquiry, and a forbidden romance involving the plucky thief Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.
A Note on Frivolous Amusement
It's all in the spirit of playful comedy, however, this approach comes with constraints. The dialed-up absurdity of a spoof might grate quickly, and the mileage on this particular variety diminishes somewhere between a skit and a full-length film.
At a certain point, one may desire to retreat to the world of (at least a modicum of) reason. Yet, you have to respect a sincere commitment to this type of comedy. If we're going to amuse ourselves unto oblivion, we might as well find the humor in it.
