The Sheep Detectives (2026)

Hugh Jackman has been mercilessly promoting this new cosy crime caper leading up to its release, or perhaps it just feels like that because he's featured on an advert for the film during every trip to the cinema in the last month. He plays a reclusive farmer in charge of a flock of sheep on the edge of a rural English village and, in the film's infancy, is murdered. It's up to his flock of talking sheep (who obviously can't be understood by humans) to figure out the identity of the killer. Jackman's George is far more comfortable with his flock—every one of which he's named—than he is with humans, and with a whole host of potential suspects in the village, as well as his long-lost daughter, who appears in the country the day before his murder, there's no shortage of suspects.

Think Babe (1995) by way of an Agatha Christie version of Hot Fuzz (2007) without the searing and violence, and you're somewhere in the right ballpark. Before the murder, we see George's everyday routines with the sheep: his caring for the tiny winter lamb, whom the rest of the flock initially reject, giving them blue-coloured medicine of his own invention, and his love for every single one of his flock as he introduces them in a voiceover. We also learn he's raising them solely for their wool and not their meat, unlike another farmer in this drama.

After his murder, his flock wants to do right by him and find the killer. Led by George's favourite, Lily (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and aided by the rest of the main sheep players—Mopple (Chris O'Dowd), Sir Richfield (Patrick Stewart), and Sebastian (Bryan Cranston)—the flock take things into their own hooves after the initial pathetic efforts by useless local policeman Tim (Nicolaus Braun). There are the locals to contend with, too, as well as the arriving daughter, along with a journalist who turns up to cover the village's three-stand culture festival.

Kyle Balda, best known for directing much of Illumination's animated output, is in the chair here and provides us with a by-the-numbers feel-good comedy that ticks all the right boxes and hardly puts a foot out of place in what it's aiming for. The Sheep Detectives knows exactly who it's playing to, and it will work for both kids and adults alike without ever venturing into anything particularly daring. It's like Midsomer Murders for kids, with sheep. Emma Thompson turns up for a brief cameo and naturally steals the film from everyone around her, although Jackman is an impressive screen presence as a doting farmer; it's actually a bit of a shame that he's killed off so early.

So Balda's film isn't doing anything remotely adventurous, but it will hold your attention and will work for kids, although the BBFC's rating of PG is fair; there are a couple of scenes that will potentially terrify very young viewers. And for those that care, don't expect the usual kids' trailer before this one. My daughter was furious with the lack of a trailer for Toy Story 5, although I was thrilled by the one for A Private Affair, the upcoming French drama starring Jodie Foster. She was far from impressed, but The Sheep Detectives did the job for her to an extent, achieving a middling thumbs-up review.

6.9/10