SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Last weekend, I saw ‘The Sheep Detectives’, a mystery comedy film featuring CGI-talking sheep in live-action. I greatly enjoyed seeing this film. This is a traditional whodunnit murder mystery with sheep helping to solve the murder. I didn’t expect to enjoy this film.

I think what got me with this film was how the murderer was unveiled. Honestly, I kept guessing who committed the murder whilst watching the film and it took me by surprise who did it by the end. As is often the case when it comes to watching a good whodunit. 🙂

The film also features a stellar cast, both in live-action and with the voice cast playing the sheep. The cast is led by Hugh Jackman, well-known for playing Wolverine in the ‘X-Men’ films. Unfortunately, his character gets killed off in this film, which is a shame, frankly. 😀

I won’t reveal who the murderer is, as you need to find that out for yourself when you see it, but like I said, I was completely fooled on who did it. Interestingly, the film is based on the 2005 novel ‘Three Bags Full’ by Leonie Swann, which I didn’t know was in existence. 🙂

In the film, Hugh Jackman plays George Hardy, a shepherd who is mysteriously found dead. His flock of sheep set off to solve the mystery of who murdered their beloved shepherd. I really like how the sheep are developed as characters throughout this film. 🙂

This is especially when certain sheep learn mistakes along the way once it comes to solving the murder mystery after being told murder mystery stories by their shepherd. It’s not done in an over-the-top way, even though some of their antics can be pretty amusing.

As well as Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Braun stars as Tim Derry, a clumsy local policeman who solves the murder mystery. Nice to have a Tim solving a murder mystery in this film. And I just found out that Nicholas Braun played Zach in ‘Sky High’. What are the odds? 😀

There’s Nicholas Galitzine as reporter Elliot Matthews, Molly Gordon as Rebecca Hampsted, George’s daughter, Hong Chau as Beth Pennock, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as Reverend Hillcoate, Conleth Hill as butcher Ham Gilyard and Mandeep Dhillion as Postwoman Jo.

It was nice to see Tosin Cole (who played Ryan Sinclair in ‘Doctor Who’ with Jodie Whittaker), as Caleb, a fellow shepherd in the film. Emma Thompson (who wrote and starred in 1995’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’) stars as Lydia Harbottle, George’s lawyer in the film.

In terms of the voice cast, there’s Lily, a Shetland sheep that becomes the de factor leader in solving the mystery of George’s death, voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Julia has played Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in some ‘MCU’ projects such as ‘Thunderbolts*’.

There’s Sebastian, a black Castlemilk Moorit sheep, voiced by Bryan Cranston, who’s been in two ‘Power Rangers’ episodes and the 2017 film. There’s also Mopple, a Merino sheep, voiced by Chris O’Dowd, who played Roy Trenneman in ‘The IT Crowd’ TV series.

There’s Cloud, a North Country Cheviot sheep, voiced by Regina Hall. There’s also Sir Richfield, a Boreay sheep, voiced by Patrick Stewart. Patrick Stewart is well-known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in ‘Star Trek’ and Professor Charles Xavier in the ‘X-Men’ films. 🙂

I recognised his voice immediately. Patrick Stewart can’t escape Hugh Jackman, can he? 😀 There’s also Zora, who’s a Danish Landrace sheep with brown wool, voiced by Bella Ramsey, and there’s Wool-Eyes, who’s a Lincoln Longwool sheep, voiced by Rhys Darby.

There’s also Reggie and Ronnie, a couple of Norfolk Horn sheep twins, both voiced by Brett Goldstein. For me, Brett Goldstein played Astos in the ‘Doctor Who’ episode ‘The Tsuranga Conundrum’ and he played Hercules at the end of ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’. 🙂

‘The Sheep Detectives’ was a worthwhile film to see at the cinema and it’s no surprise it received positive reviews from critics. I’m sure I’ll be seeing this film again soon. Maybe I’ll see the film again at the cinema. 🙂 Or I might see it when it becomes available for home viewing.

Incidentally, the song played during the film’s end credits is ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’ by the Proclaimers. Before this film, I’ve heard that song played in a 2007 Comic Relief special, a video on David Tennant’s farewell as the Tenth Doctor, and the 2018 film ‘Peter Rabbit’. Funny how I keep hearing that song. 😀

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂