Sheep Sleuths Star in Baa-rilliant Murder Mystery!

The Sheep Detectives (PG, 109 mins)

Verdict: Mutton dressed as lamb

Rating: Three stars

The 2015 classic Shaun The Sheep and its 2019 sequel Farmageddon set, in the admittedly uncrowded field of ovine comedies for all the family, a formidably high baa.

The Sheep Detectives reaches it only intermittently, though along the way there are several moments of shear pleasure.

Right, with (almost) all of my sheep puns out of the way, let's get down to business.

I took my seat expecting to be charmed, given the pedigree of those involved. Hugh Jackman and Emma Thompson lead the live-action cast, with Bryan Cranston, Patrick Stewart, Chris O'Dowd and Julia Louis-Dreyfus among the voice ensemble.

Furthermore, the director is Kyle Balda (Minions) and the writer is Craig Mazin, whose diverse credits range from The Hangover Part II to the brilliant TV mini-series Chernobyl (2019). And the producers are Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, whose Working Title stable positively overflows with hits.

This film's working title was Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie, which was lifted from the 2005 source novel by the German writer Leonie Swann - but perhaps also hinted at a woolly version of the Knives Out series.

I don't know why it was re-titled, but with its wacky array of murder suspects and decidedly convoluted plot, it is more than a little reminiscent of Wake Up Dead Man, the latest Knives Out picture. With added computer-generated talking sheep.

Jackman plays George Hardy, a shepherd so devoted to his bleating charges that he gives them names (such as Ronnie and Reggie, a pair of pugnacious twin rams), feeds them blue medicine and reads detective stories to them at twilight. He thinks they can't talk, but of course we know otherwise, and soon they have a real-life murder to discuss.

Sadly, the victim is George himself. But who has knocked him off? And why?

The setting is rural England, so there's also a distinct whiff of Agatha Christie and Midsomer Murders - although the characters best-equipped to solve George's murder seem to be his beloved herd, principally 'the world's smartest sheep' Lily (Louis-Dreyfus) along with Mopple (O'Dowd) and Sebastian (Cranston).

On the human side of the fence, there's a local copper played by Nicholas Braun (more or less reprising Cousin Greg, his amiable dimwit in the TV hit Succession), a dogged newspaperman (Nicholas Galitzine) and a sneaky shopkeeper (Hong Chau).

Thompson plays George's sharp-tongued lawyer, who arrives to read out his will and reveals that he had two children, who were given up for adoption.

The film bowls along merrily enough, and the CGI sheep are splendidly rendered. There are also quite a few lines that made me smile, with Lily and co aware from all the detective stories George read them that the police habitually like to pin this kind of murder on 'a drifter'.

Yet I'd hoped for more. By the end I felt mildly short-changed... rather than thoroughly fleeced.