Nanny McPhee is a 2005 comedy drama fantasy film based on the Nurse Matilda character by Christianna Brand.

It was directed by Kirk Jones, coproduced by StudioCanal, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, Working Title Films, Three Strange Angels, and Nanny McPhee Productions with music by Patrick Doyle, and produced by Lindsay Doran, Tim Bevan, and Eric Fellner.

In Victorian England, widowed undertaker Cedric Brown is the father of seven unruly children—Simon, Tora, Eric, Lily, Sebastian, Christianna ("Chrissie") and baby Agatha ("Aggie").

That same night during a storm, while the children cause havoc in the kitchen, Cedric opens the door to reveal a hideous woman, who introduces herself as Nanny McPhee.

Over time, the children become more responsible, helping their clumsy father in solving the family problems, making Nanny McPhee less and less needed.

The family is financially supported by Cedric's late wife's domineering and short-sighted aunt, Lady Adelaide Stitch, who demands custody over one of the children.

The children assume from reading fairy tales that all stepmothers are terrible women who treat their stepchildren like slaves; together, they sabotage Mrs. Quickly's visit, and she leaves, angry at Cedric.

However, at the garish wedding, Mrs. Quickly begins to show her true colors as a potential wicked stepmother as the children originally predicted.

On 11 March 2002 Kirk Jones was hired and set to direct Nanny McPhee based on Nurse Matilda by Christianna Brand.

On 22 April it was announced that Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Thomas Sangster, Kelly Macdonald, Angela Lansbury, Eliza Bennett, Jennifer Rae Daykin, Raphaël Coleman, Samuel Honywood, Holly Gibbs, Celia Imrie, Imelda Staunton, Derek Jacobi, Patrick Barlow and Adam Godley joined the film.

The critical consensus reads, "A bit alarming at first, Nanny McPhee has a hard edge to counter Mary Poppins-style sweetness, but it still charms us and teaches some valuable lessons.

[9] In August 2018, on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2, Thompson confirmed that she had written a third instalment, but that the studio thought it was too expensive to make, given the worse than expected performance of the second film.