Sheep steal the spotlight from Hugh Jackman in the charming family-friendly murder mystery: “The Sheep Detective.” Although there is a murder, it isn’t bloody and you’ll learn a bit more about stereotypes, sheep and the nature of love in this cozy murder mystery.
Based on German crime writer Leonie Swann’s 2005 novel “Three Bags Full,” the film is set in the English town of Denbrook. (The novel was set in Ireland). I haven’t read the novel, but am intrigued and may read it in the near future.
Den Brook or Denbrook is an actual location in Devon, England which is known for the 9-turbine 18MW wind farm that became fully operational in November 2016.
In the film, outside Denbrook, a shepherd, George Hardy (Hugh Jackman), lives peacefully in a shiny camper on a meadow. While he lives alone, he keeps busy tending to his flock in the day and at night, he reads murder mystery novels to them at night. While the sheep of different breeds get along, there are two outsiders: the lamb that was born in winter (rather than spring) who the sheep actively avoid and the mysterious Icelandic Leadership ram Sebastian (voiced by Bryan Cranston).
After George has finished reading, the sheep discuss the reading. The Shetland sheep, Lily (Julia Louise-Dreyfus), who is George’s favorite, is particularly clever at figuring out who the murderer is. The sheep who will become her main cohort in crime-solving, the Merino sheep Mopple (Chris O’Dowd) remembers everything, while most soft the sheep can decide to forget things. There’s a lot to forget because that makes life easier. One thing they like to forget is death. And it’s the pain of death which is central to this story. Amongst this flock, the sheep believe that sheep don’t die; they turn into clouds.
We’re reminded of this particularly because one of the sheep, a North Country Cheviot sheep, is named Cloud (Regina Hall). The rest of the flock includes Sir Richfield (Patrick Stewart) the Borerary sheep, Zora (Bella Ramsey) the Danish Landrace sheep, Wool-Eyes (Rhys Darby) the Lincoln Longwool sheep and Reggie and Ronnie (Brett Goldstein), the twin Norfolk Horn sheep. Having such a diversity in the flock, helps to show how different sheep can look and aids in seeing them as individuals.
When George dies, Lily is sure it is murder, but the local singular and single policeman Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun) wants to quickly shut the case, they make sure he finds the clues. Reporter Elliot Matthews (Nicholas Galitzine) was disappointed of find that the local festival is just a few tables of stuff, but indicates a murder story could give his career a much needed boost. He’s hoping to team up with Derry.
Who are the suspects? The mysterious Rebecca Hampstead (Molly Gordon) to whom George was having a friendly correspondence, innkeeper Beth Pennock (Hong Chau) who purloins a letter from George to Rebecca from the postal carrier before it can be sent, George’s neighbor Caleb Merrow (Tosin Cole) who is also a shepherd but has a different philosophy, George’s lawyer Lydia Harbottle (Emma Thompson) because why would such a simple fellow need high profile legal representation, the local priest Reverend Hillcoate (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith) to whom George owes a debt and the butcher Ham Gilyard (Conleth Hill).
You won’t be able to solve this mystery. It made no sense to me as an artist nor to my husband the scientist. It will make more sense to kids. If you’re not familiar with sheep and goat husbandry, you might miss the reference to Orf, a zoonotic disease also known as farmyard pox. The disease causes small pustules on sheep and goats, but it can spread to humans who handle infected animals or contaminated objects resulting in a type of pox forming on hands.
Yet science has been ignored by even scientists in classic murder mysteries such as the famous 1892 Sherlock Holmes story, “The Adventure of the Speckled Band.” Conan Doyle may have been a doctor, but he didn’t know that snakes cannot be summoned by a whistle and snakes do not have the body structure or musculature to give them the gripping ability to climb up or down a free-hanging bell cord.
If you can overlook that problematic solution, then this flock to this family-friendly fare. Director Kyle Balda (“The Lorax,” with Chris Renauld; and “Minions,” 2015) deftly balances the sad (because the murder of a kindly shepherd is not happy stuff) with comedy in Emmy Award-winning (Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Limited Series for a”The Last of Us”) Craig Mazin’s witty script.
Afterward, you might have questions. We did so here are answers to your sheepish questions.
Are sheep, sheepish?
We have a lot of phrases that reference sheep. A person who is meek, timid or stupid is sheepish. A person can be the black sheep of the family. People can be sheeple.
Yet a male sheep, a ram, is associated with the verb “to ram” which means “to strike with violence” (intransitive verb) or “to strike against violently” and “to force in by or as if by driving” (transitive verb). The word for a female sheep, “ewe,” has no verb associated with it.
However, According to the research of Lori Marino and Debra Merskin, domestic sheep can be individualistic and social. They have a capacity for discrimination and memory of different faces within (i.e. other sheep) and across species (e.g. people). Sheep are capable of “strong mother-offspring bonds and relationships that shape social groupings beyond food availability and distribution.
- Intelligence, Complexity, and Individuality in Sheep (2019)
- Why Are Sheep Sheepish? How Perception Affects Animal Stereotyping (2019)
Robert G. Franklin Jr. considers that physical appearance “directly leads to judgments that can form the basis of stereotypes,” and because “as sheep are very round and soft, they elicit immediate judgements of warmth and friendliness.” That is particularly true for breeds that are naturally polled or hornless. The second cue is the physical appearance which for sheep is large eyes and round faces.
A notable exception to this stereotype that helps to validate the importance of visual cues. is that rams are often an exception to the stereotype of sheep. In the US, a popular model of truck, a football team, and several college teams are named after rams, with aggressive logos. Bighorn sheep are a species of sheep with large horns. Though bighorn sheep are closely related to domestic sheep and able to interbreed, they do not have the same stereotype. Thus, bighorn sheep can be seen as an example of subtyping, where a member of a group violates a stereotype. When some members of a group violate a stereotype, they do not change the stereotype overall but are seen as exceptions that prove the rule. In this case, bighorn sheep are seen as particularly aggressive for a sheep.
Do female sheep have horns?
If you’re in California, Colorado or the “Bighorn Sheep State” of Nevada, you should know this. The desert bighorn sheep is the official state mammal of Nevada. The Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep is the official state animal of Colorado. California also has the federally endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep and the Peninsular bighorn sheep. Female bighorn sheep (ewes) have horns, but they are noticeably shorter, thinner and less curved than the males (rams).
Some domesticated sheep breeds do have ewes with horns. The endangered British sheep the Dorset Horn, originating in Dorset (southwest England) is one breed where both rams and ewes have horns and according to it is the only British sheep breed capable of breeding throughout the winter according to the “Mason’s World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding.” That means two lambing seasons. Wiltshire Horn is a British breed originating in Wiltshire (Southern England) that is raised primarily for meat and both the ewe and ram have horns. The Jacob sheep is another British breed where the male and female both have horns and in this case, often four. The sheep is also known for its piebald coloration. The Jacob is raised for wool, meat and skins.
Arapawa (New Zealand) is a feral sheep found on what was formerly Arapawa Island (currently known as Arapaoa). The sheep was raised for wool. The Racka Sheep is an endangered Hungarian breed with curly wood and spiral horns on both the rams and ewes. The Racka are raised for wool, milk and meat. .
Can sheep see colors?
According to several sources, sheep can indeed see certain colors. They are red-green color blind which means those two colors seem the same to them.
- Fun Facts about Sheep (6 April 2020)
- Discrimination of Colours and Grey Shades by Merino Ewes: Tests Using Coloured Lambs (July 1979)
The tendency of lactating ewes to run to lambs visible some distance away, was used to examine the responsiveness of ewes to various colours and to test the ewes for colour vision.Lambs were coloured red, orange, yellow, green or blue (colour series) and white, black or one of eight shades of grey (grey series) by dusting pigments or mixtures of talc and carbon black into the coat.Ewes presented with their own lamb immediately after colouring showed various types of abnormal behaviour, the incidence of which clearly increased with increased darkness of grey. In the colour series there were few abnormal responses to yellow, more to orange and a high incidence with green, blue and red. Thus red is either seen as a dark colour or has a special visual impact.
Do wolves attack sheep in Great Britain?
You might wonder, especially if you live in North America, if there was a problem of wolves (because we know that the UK doesn’t have mountain lions or coyotes, right?). You wonder if the sheep might need a herding dog and a livestock guardian dog (e.g. Great Pyrenees). If so, why weren’t the sheep protected by dogs?
Wolves are not native to Great Britain and have been extinct there for centuries. They are found in the continental Europe. There is, however, a problem with stray or free roaming dogs attacking sheep. In February 2024, A Dartmoor farm lost 45 sheep and in May 2026, 35 sheep were killed .
- After “Horror Movie” on Farm only One Man Could Help: The Dogfather (7 May 2026)
- Northamptonshire Man Sentenced after AllowingDogs to Chase Flock of Pregnant Sheep on Christmas Day, Resulting in Death of Three Ewes (6 May 2026)
- Tavistock: Dog Attack on Dartmoor Farm Kills 45 Sheep (8 February 2024)
A lot of herding dog breeds come from the UK such as the Border Collie, the Rough Collie, the Smooth Collie, the Bearded Collie, the Old English Sheepdog, the Shetland Sheepdog and the Welsh Corgi. It’s surprising that the sheepherder has no herding dog. Yet I think all farms should have dogs. That might be my prejudice.
Overall, this was my most anticipated movie of 2026 and it didn’t disappoint. It helped us name two of our puppets: Shearlock Holmes and Wan Wan Watson. Holmes got to attend the film at The Grove. Watson did not.