ALISON BOSHOFF: Damian Lewis leads backlash by unpaid cast of Jimmy Carr's Downton spoof

Disaster and recriminations flew on the set of Downton Abbey spoof Fackham Hall, written by comic Jimmy Carr and starring Damian Lewis.

The £5 million movie suffered a financial collapse part way through filming, with backers pulling out, and none of the cast or crew have yet been fully paid.

Wolf Hall star Lewis apparently led a ‘heated’ meeting to demand everyone got their wages. His co-stars include Harry Potter’s Tom Felton plus Thomasin McKenzie, Katherine Waterston and Anna Maxwell Martin. They are owed four weeks money (out of six), which is promised to come through possibly as soon as today, but before Christmas in any case.

Carr has agreed to take no fee, and producer Kris Thykier (married to TV star Claudia Winkleman) will also defer, as will fellow producers Danny Perkins and Mila Cottray.

It’s a rough start in the movie business for Carr. He, Thykier and Winkleman are long-time friends.

A source explains: ‘It’s been very difficult, but the team agreed to keep on working despite the uncertainty. The promise is that everyone will be paid in the next few days.’

Deals have now been done with a new financier and distributors.

Fackham Hall was made by Two & Two Pictures and Mews Films, an offshoot of Archery Pictures, run by Thykier. The plot concerns ‘lovable pickpocket’ Eric Noone, played by Ben Radcliffe, who moves into the English manor house of Fackham Hall. He has a romance with the daughter of the house, Rose Davenport (McKenzie). His love rival is played by Tom Felton. Lewis is the patriarch Lord Davenport and Waterston plays his wife.

Cameras started rolling on Fackham Hall in November and wrapped last Friday. It will be in cinemas next summer.

When the project was announced, Carr said: ‘The British film industry does two things very well: period drama and comedy. We didn’t have time to write two movies, so we’ve had to mash the genres together. I’m just slightly worried that if you say Fackham Hall in a posh English accent, it might be misconstrued.’

A number of high-profile comedies, such as Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle, have flopped recently, which has made the genre challenging. And many traditional financiers and distributors have left the British independent film business, so it’s never been tougher to bring a project to fruition.

Thykier recently produced the film Hijack, which went to the streamer Apple, and Luther: The Fallen Sun, which was immensely successful for Netflix. He also produced the 2022 film Operation Mincemeat, starring Colin Firth, Matthew MacFadyen and Kelly Macdonald.

Trump won't force me out, says Domingo 

Ellen DeGeneres fled to the UK after Donald Trump won the US presidential election, but actor Colman Domingo says that he would never consider following a similar path.

Domingo, 55, is in the race for an Oscar thanks to his stunning performance in the film Sing Sing, which follows a group of people incarcerated in the infamous New York jail who join a theatre troupe.

It’s based on a real story about a successful rehabilitation-through-the-arts programme. A number of the characters in the film are depicted by former inmates.

I caught up with Domingo on a flying visit to London, and we chatted about how he is having to keep up his stamina for the long campaigning ahead of the Academy Awards on March 2.

Nominated last year for Rustin – in the year that Paul Giamatti was also up for an Oscar for The Holdovers – he said: ‘Paul is one of my best friends to this day. You become brothers because, in a way, you can’t prepare for what you are going through and only you can understand it.’

The nominees for the 2025 Academy Awards will be announced in mid-January.

As for a move out of the US because Trump is moving into the White House, Domingo said: ‘To take that action would be to allow the idea that because of a transfer of power I am hopeless. No, no, no. As an artist I will take a different direction. I’m going to roll up my sleeves and go to work.

‘There are people who can’t afford to make these choices. I want to be there for them, and I want to be there for the people who may be affected by policies which may be enacted. And I want to prove to people that there is more that unites us than divides us.’

In Sing Sing, Domingo gives a brilliantly second-rate audition of Hamlet’s ‘To be or not to be’ speech, then loses out on the part to a younger, more authentic actor.

It’s a fantastically nuanced performance, and he considered when doing it whether the budding actor he was portraying in the film was likely to be ‘Broadway-ready’ or just a talented amateur. ‘He is trying to be a professional actor, but what people are looking for is something more raw.’

Millie's other great love: Winnie the poodle

Millie Bobby Brown is making the most of every day of the Christmas break – because she’s back to work in London early in the New Year.

Brown, 20, skipped the wrap party for the fifth and last ever series of Stranger Things this week to fly to New York, where she lives with husband Jake Bongiovi, the son of rocker Jon Bon Jovi.

Sources say that she is ‘enjoying a magical year’ as a newlywed, having married in May this year.

She’ll be in London making Enola Holmes 3, also for Netflix, with co-stars Henry Cavill and Helena Bonham Carter. Husband Jake has an executive producer credit on the film and is expected to travel with her.

So is her three-year-old poodle Winnie – her ‘therapy dog’ whom she bought after suffering from panic attacks.

The first two Enola Holmes films were big hits for Netflix and the third will be directed by Philip Barantini, who landed the gig after saying that he wanted to take the film series in a darker direction, much as Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban did for the wizarding franchise.

Lennon brothers give peace a chance 

Julian LENNON might have had a cancer health scare, but at least he has his little brother to lean on.

Yesterday Julian announced that he’d had emergency surgery on suspect skin patches (one of which was melanoma) on his shoulder and arm and is awaiting biopsy results.

Shortly before that the 61-year-old had shared on social media this photo of himself and his half-brother Sean in New York. He wrote: ‘A goodnight kiss for my brother after spending the evening with him, having a lil dinner and chatting the night away, at The Dakota. Something we rarely get to do . . .’ 

Sean, 49, who is a musician, is living in the apartment at The Dakota building famously occupied by John and Yoko Ono.

She moved to their upstate farmhouse during Covid and, as I revealed last year, the move is now permanent. 

At 91 she is understood to have health challenges. John was murdered outside the building in 1980, and Julian – then living in the UK with his mother Cynthia – was flown by Concorde to break the news to his then five-year-old half-brother.

There were decades of mistrust between the siblings, and a dispute over Lennon’s £250 million legacy, but for the past two decades they have been drawing ever closer. In 2021 they even took a road trip together. 

Julian, who had a successful career as a singer, now runs The White Feather Foundation, which works on environmental and humanitarian issues.

Famous Five Timmy's a trickster

Julian, Dick, George, Anne and Timmy the dog ride again in a new 90-minute episode of The Famous Five this Christmas. Ann Akinjirin, who plays Aunt Fanny, says that Kip, the pooch who plays Timmy, has become very much a part of the team.

‘He’s a great character and a lovely energy to be around, and so is his owner Rosie. He’s playful, he’s quite young and he has these amazing tricks. In between takes, Rosie will show us a new trick that he’s learnt,’ says Ann.

‘When the crew had a “hat day” just for fun, Timmy came on set with a cap on – he’s one of us.’

A 90-minute episode, Murder At The Prospect Hotel, is available on BBC iPlayer from December 23 and airs on BBC1 on New Year’s Eve.

BGT winner on a secret mission... to nab Bond gig

BGT winner Sydnie Christmas had the honour of performing at the Royal Variety Performance on Sunday – but has her eye on a global stage.

I can reveal that Sydney, 29, would love to sing the theme tune for the next Bond movie, and her performance of a new song at the weekend, Believer, was intended to show what she can do.

She told me: ‘Singing a James Bond theme has always been a dream of mine, and the Royal Variety felt like the perfect opportunity to put that intention out into the universe. My favourite Bond themes are Adele’s Skyfall and, of course, anything by the ultimate Bond singer, Shirley Bassey. If I could create a song with that level of grandeur and drama, it would be a huge career milestone.’

She added: ‘Meeting the King was an unforgettable experience. Singing for him was an immense honour, and the entire Royal Variety Performance felt like a dream come true.’

She will feature on ITV’s New Year’s Eve show, singing My Way, and after her debut tour in the UK in February will play some dates in the US.

New face of Marks & Spencer’s festive food

Dawn French is the face of Marks & Spencer’s festive food – but she might struggle to get her hands on its chocolate and hazelnut buche, as the company does not deliver to her area.

French, 57, who stars as a Christmas fairy in this year’s TV advertising campaign, lives in a beautiful Victorian villa in a fairly lonesome part of Cornwall. But Ocado, which shuttles around

M&S food, does not deliver to her postcode.

Let’s hope M&S have sent her a hamper with thanks.

Have the new Fab Four been revealed? 

According to a series of leaks and hints, the Sam Mendes series of four Beatles films – each telling the story from the perspective of one of the band members – has found its stars. 

Ringo Starr has let slip that Barry Keoghan is playing him, Paul Mescal is said to be lined up as Paul McCartney, and his Gladiator co-star Joe Quinn as George Harrison. 

John Lennon is set to be played by Triangle Of Sadness and Babygirl star Harris Dickinson.