Movies like National Theatre Live: The Importance of Being Earnest (2025)
The best movies like National Theatre Live: The Importance of Being Earnest (2025) are A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong (2017), Fackham Hall (2025) and Much Ado About Nothing (2013). If National Theatre Live: The Importance of Being Earnest hooked you with its comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedNoises Off... (1992)7.1/10 from 233 votes
- NewestFackham Hall (2025)Released 2025
A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong (2017)
The Mischief Theatre Company return as the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society who are this time determined to ignore a BBC blacklisting by hijacking a live production of Charles Dickens' famous festive fable. Yet they struggle with studio direction and special effects, and trying to keep a professional cast at bay.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Fackham Hall (2025)
A new servant embarks on an unlikely relationship with the youngest daughter of a prominent English family. Simultaneously, rivalries are spilling over in the Davenport family, led by the Lord and Lady as they also weather the epic failure of the wedding of their eldest daughter to her caddish cousin.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMuch Ado About Nothing (2013)
A modern retelling of Shakespeare's classic comedy about two pairs of lovers with different takes on romance and a way with words.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNational Theatre Live: A Midsummer Night's Dream (2019)
A feuding fairy King and Queen of the forest cross paths with four runaway lovers and a troupe of actors trying to rehearse a play. As their dispute grows, the magical royal couple meddle with mortal lives leading to love triangles, mistaken identities and transformations… with hilarious, but dark consequences.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Much Ado About Nothing (2011)
Two young lovers, Claudio and Hero, are to be married imminently but the devious scheming of a resentful Prince looks set to thwart the nuptials. Meanwhile, marriage seems inconceivable for reluctant lovers Beatrice and Benedick whose endless witty sparring threatens to keep them apart forever. Directed by Josie Rourke, Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare’s great plays and reminds us all of the failings and triumphs of the human condition in our never ending search for perfect love.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisNoises Off... (1992)
Hired to helm an Americanized take on a British play, director Lloyd Fellowes does his best to control an eccentric group of stage actors. With a star actress quickly passing her prime, a male lead with no confidence, and a bit actor that's rarely sober, chaos ensues in the lead up to a Broadway premiere.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Importance of Being Earnest (1952)
Two young gentlemen living in 1890s England use the same pseudonym ('Ernest') on the sly, which is fine until they both fall in love with women using that name, which leads to a comedy of mistaken identities.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn the Bleak Midwinter (1995)
Out of work actor Joe volunteers to help try and save his sister's local church for the community by putting on a Christmas production of Hamlet, somewhat against the advice of his agent Margaretta. As the cast he assembles are still available even at Christmas and are prepared to do it on a 'profit sharing' basis (that is, they may not get paid anything) he cannot expect - and does not get - the cream of the cream. But although they all bring their own problems and foibles along, something bigger starts to emerge in the perhaps aptly named village of Hope.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Cock and Bull Story (2005)
Steve Coogan, an arrogant actor with low self-esteem and a complicated love life, is playing the eponymous role in an adaptation of "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" being filmed at a stately home. He constantly spars with actor Rob Brydon, who is playing Uncle Toby and believes his role to be of equal importance to Coogan's.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBright Young Things (2003)
During the 1930s in England, a group of young socialites dominate the national gossip with extravagant and outlandish antics. Among the group is the aspiring novelist Adam Fenwick-Symes, who is attempting to raise enough money to marry fellow member Nina Blount. However, after customs officials confiscate his first manuscript, Fenwick-Symes must recover from the financial setback and figure out new ways to earn money for a wedding.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTheater Camp (2023)
After the indomitable and beloved founder of a scrappy theater camp in upstate New York falls into a coma, the eccentric staff must band together with her clueless "crypto-bro" son to keep the thespian paradise afloat.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hippopotamus (2017)
Disgraced poet Ted Wallace is summoned to his friend's country manor to investigate a series of unexplained miracles.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)
Mistaken identity, unrequited love, and the supernatural are combined in Shakespeare's classic set in the woods of Greece on a moonlit night.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove's Labour's Lost (2000)
A scholarly king and his three companions swear off the society of women for three years, only to have a diplomatic visit from a French princess and her three ladies-in-waiting thwart their intentions.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisBlackadder: The Cavalier Years (1988)
A short movie, made for Comic Relief, in which Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) and Baldrick (Tony Robinson) must help protect King Charles I (Stephen Fry) from the machinations of Oliver Cromwell and his Roundheads
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Midsummer Night's Dream (2016)
At the tyrannical court of Athens, pitiless dictator Theseus plans his wedding to Hippolyta, a prisoner of war, while young Hermia is sentenced to death by her own father for loving the wrong man. Meanwhile, in the town below, an amateur theatre group rehearses. And beyond Athens, in the wild woods, dark forces are stirring...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Chris Rock: Kill the Messenger (2008)
An HBO special edited from three performances from Chris Rock's 2008 comedy tour: London (dark suit, dark shirt), Johannesburg (black suit, white shirt) and New York (shiny jacket). Topics include the ongoing presidential campaign, the possibility of a black president, George W. Bush, gas prices, low-paid jobs, ringtones and bottled water, sex, relationships and the correct use of the n-word
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThunderstruck (2012)
After NBA star Kevin Durant switches talent with 16 year old Brian, the teenager becomes the star of his high school team, but Durant starts struggling and eventually learns an important lesson.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Rutles: All You Need Is Cash (1978)
The story of the rise and fall of the Pre-Fab Four.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRicky Gervais Live 2: Politics (2004)
A year after Animals, Ricky Gervais comes back with his second stand up comedy tour: Politics.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMalibu Rescue: The Next Wave (2020)
It’s summer again, and everyone’s favorite Junior Rescuers, The Flounders, are back at Tower 2. With the International Junior Rescue Championships headed to Southern California, the eyes of the entire planet are on Malibu Beach. But when Team USA falls victim to a bout of food poisoning, it’s up to Tyler, Dylan, Eric, Lizzie and Gina to represent their country in the world's most extreme lifeguard challenge!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrain Donors (1992)
Three manic idiots—a lawyer, a cab driver and a handyman—team up to run a ballet company to fulfil the will of a millionaire. Stooge-like antics result as the trio try to outwit the rich widow and her scheming big-shot lawyer, who also wants to run the ballet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnimal Crackers (1930)
The well-known explorer and hunter Captain Spaulding has just returned from Africa, and is being welcomed home with a lavish party at the estate of influential society matron Mrs. Rittenhouse when a valuable painting goes missing. The intrepid Captain Spaulding attempts to solve the crime with the help of his silly secretary Horatio Jamison, while sparring with the anarchic Signor Emanuel Ravelli and his nutty sidekick The Professor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJerry Seinfeld: 23 Hours to Kill (2020)
Jerry Seinfeld takes the stage in New York and tackles talking vs. texting, bad buffets vs. so-called "great" restaurants and the magic of Pop Tarts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisClass Rank (2017)
Two high school misfits join forces in an attempt to overtake the local school board. Guided by their families, they enter the perilous word of politics and, in the process, learn a thing or two about love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFun with Dick and Jane (1977)
When an upwardly mobile couple find themselves unemployed and in debt, they turn to armed robbery in desperation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisZiegfeld Follies (1945)
The late, great impresario Florenz Ziegfeld looks down from heaven and ordains a new revue in his grand old style.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGabriel Iglesias: I'm Sorry for What I Said When I Was Hungry (2016)
Hawaiian-shirt enthusiast Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias finds the laughs in racist gift baskets, Prius-driving cops and all-female taco trucks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Spy (2020)
A hardened CIA operative finds himself at the mercy of a precocious 9-year-old girl, having been sent undercover to surveil her family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShock Treatment (1981)
Brad and Janet Majors find their strained marriage put to the test on popular Denton TV show Marriage Maze. Poor Brad is heavily sedated and institutionalised, whilst Janet is given a radical makeover and primed for stardom. But what are the real motivations behind the kooky DTV crew and their enigmatic head-honcho, Farley Flavors?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like National Theatre Live: The Importance of Being Earnest?
The closest matches to National Theatre Live: The Importance of Being Earnest are A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong (2017), Fackham Hall (2025) and Much Ado About Nothing (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after National Theatre Live: The Importance of Being Earnest?
People who watched National Theatre Live: The Importance of Being Earnest most often go on to A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong (2017), Fackham Hall (2025) and Much Ado About Nothing (2013).
What is the highest-rated movie like National Theatre Live: The Importance of Being Earnest?
Noises Off... (1992), rated 7.1/10 by 233 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like National Theatre Live: The Importance of Being Earnest?
Fackham Hall (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like National Theatre Live: The Importance of Being Earnest?
Yes: A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong (2017), Fackham Hall (2025) and Much Ado About Nothing (2013).
How are movies similar to National Theatre Live: The Importance of Being Earnest chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside National Theatre Live: The Importance of Being Earnest, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.