THE SHEEP DETECTIVES (2026)

Shepherd George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) is something of a loner, living on the outskirts of an English village and tending to his flock. Among them are Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), the smartest of her kind; Mopple (Chris O’Dowd), cursed with an inability to forget; and Sebastian (Bryan Cranston), a mysterious black ram who prefers his own company. Hardy reads from his collection of murder mysteries to the flock every night. This comes in handy when they find him murdered one morning and, led by Lily, leave the meadow to investigate.

A closed circle of suspects emerges from the local village of Denbrook: Rebecca Hampstead (Molly Gordon), Hardy’s long-lost daughter; innkeeper Beth Pennock (Hong Chau); rival shepherd Caleb Merrow (Tosin Cole); the Reverend Hillcoate (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith); and butcher Ham Gilyard (Conleth Hill). Bumbling village policeman Tim Curry (Nicholas Braun) investigates, assisted by reporter Elliot Matthews (Nicholas Galitzine), who has travelled from London to cover Denbrook’s “cultural festival” but finds a better story in Hardy’s death. Naturally, a will is involved, and the dead shepherd’s lawyer, Lydia Harbottle (Emma Thompson), turns up to read its stipulations. Can Lily and company solve the mystery before disaster strikes their flock?

When I arrived at the cinema, there were plenty of children, including some obnoxious teenagers, and trailers for children’s films preceded the main attraction. This resulted in youngsters asking their parents to explain the plot, while I wondered whether I should grass up the teens to an usher and risk a stabbing. It’s hard to say whether the film was mis-sold as a kiddie flick, although the trailers for Paw Patrol and its ilk suggest that exhibitors regard it as one. No doubt much of the audience showed up expecting a straightforward, Pixar-esque talking animal film, or a variation on Babe (1995).

I was pleasantly surprised to find that The Sheep Detectives is, in its story at least, as much for me as anyone. One of my great enthusiasms is Golden Age detective fiction, and this film follows that tradition. It is based on the original German novel by Leonie Swann, titled Three Bags Full—a very “Golden Age” title with its pun and nursery rhyme reference. It’s equally typical for the Americans to take that title and replace it with a stupid one that bluntly states the premise, as if for the benefit of the yokels in the back. Other examples: Margery Allingham’s Traitor’s Purse (1941) became The Sabotage Murder Mystery, while Agatha Christie’s One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (1940) was renamed The Patriotic Murders. US publishers and studios are always accounting for “Cousin Cletus”, it seems.

The mystery in The Sheep Detectives is relatively well-constructed and clued—a breath of fresh air after Scream 7’s (2026) nonsensical plot. There isn’t as much focus on the characters’ motivations and alibis as I’d like; though I haven’t read Swann’s novel, it feels as if the film might have deviated from her work to focus on the “talking animal” element. This is a shame, as Swann’s basic plot is strong and savvy regarding the genre. It doesn’t have the feel of recent “cosy” mysteries—often written by celebrities like Richard Osman (The Thursday Murder Club) or the Reverend Richard Coles (Murder Before Evensong)—where the focus is more on sitcom characters than rigorous plotting.

Still, the mystery remains in Craig Mazin’s script, under Kyle Balda’s direction. I half-guessed “whodunnit” based on my knowledge of a trick that Agatha Christie—who popularised many of the genre’s tropes—used more than once with the closed circle. The Sheep Detectives is, at heart, a classical detective story with gentle philosophical underpinnings. The sheep triumvirate of Lily, Mopple, and Sebastian is well-characterised, as is the society they inhabit. There is a focus on their blind faith and received wisdom, bolstered by a ritual forgetfulness—an ability (one Mopple doesn’t share) to remove upsetting information from their minds at whim.

There’s a subplot about their rejection of “winter lambs” that’s a little odd in its handling; it makes me wonder again whether Swann’s text was gutted of its more specific elements. Lambs born in winter are rejected by the group—a real phenomenon where sheep sometimes spurn newborns for mysterious reasons. The lamb in the film looks so small and pathetic that it dampened my sympathy for Lily and Mopple to some extent. Not massively—they’re still endearing characters—but it might have been a wiser artistic choice to have the rejected lamb look less like an abused victim.

Nevertheless, the lambs serve a role in the character arcs. The emotional side of the flock’s narrative was genuinely moving at times; perhaps I’m sensitive to “outsider” stories and animal suffering, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t almost shed a tear at Sebastian’s backstory and his redemption through Hardy’s kindness. Is it manipulative? Perhaps. It worked on me, though. The film’s larger theme suggests that empathy, kindness, and the rejection of blind faith provide a better view of life. When Lily and Mopple investigate a meadow where sheep are used for meat, the exploited animals appear faceless, lost in fog and darkness. The sheep of the sunlit meadow, by contrast, are capable of questioning things and overcoming their fears because they haven’t been exploited in that way. I may be reading too much into the script, but the thematic content is certainly there.

I was pleasantly entertained by The Sheep Detectives. I tend to judge films by how well they stop me thinking about my grocery list or tomorrow’s chores, and this ranks fairly high. That’s no great feat, as it is a classical detective story—a genre I’ve loved since I was small—and contains semi-theological reflections on faith, love, and death, which are catnip to me.

The comedy is probably the film’s weakest link. I judge comedy on a different scale because it’s so hard to make me laugh spontaneously. The children and older people in the audience seemed to enjoy the humour, which mainly consists of slapstick and safe observational jokes. I didn’t dislike it, and it felt consistent with the tone. I’d recommend The Sheep Detectives to both mystery fans and talking-animal enthusiasts. Its plot is probably slightly too involved for young children, although the ones in my theatre didn’t seem too restless.

You can probably wait for it to appear on streaming. As I walked home past 9:30 pm, navigating Saturday night crowds, avoiding a screaming couple, and witnessing a gang of kids rob a sweet shop, I did wonder if the film was worth the ordeal of leaving the house. I’m glad I saw it, though.

IRELAND • UK • GERMANY • USA | 2026 | 109 MINUTES | 2.00:1 | COLOUR | ENGLISH

Cast & Crew

director: Kyle Balda.
writer: Craig Mazin (based on the novel ‘Three Bags Full’ by Leonie Swann).
starring: Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, Molly Gordon, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Chris O’Dowd, Regina Hall, Patrick Stewart, Bella Ramsey, Brett Goldstein, Hong Chau & Emma Thompson.