7 h. ago How did Jessie Buckley go from narrowly failing to win Andrew Lloyd Webber's TV talent show aged 17 to being hot favourite to take home a Golden Globe for her performance in Hamnet? asks SARAH RAINEY

Jessie Buckley is a chameleon of an actress. In the past few years, she's dyed her naturally brunette hair peroxide blonde, jet black and scarlet.

Culture

17 h. ago ‘She will go down as one of the best’: the rise of Jessie Buckley

From talent shows to the big screen, the actor’s performance in Hamnet has made her a leading awards contenderHamnet, Chloé Zhao’s film adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling novel about William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes (or Anne) Hathaway, is a tender meditation on love and grief. Charting the couple’s anguish over the death of their 11-year-old son – said to have inspired the play Hamlet – it has moved audiences to tears and united critics in their praise.The film’s emotional force is carried by the Irish actor and singer Jessie Buckley, who portrays Hathaway (opposite Paul Mescal’s Shakespeare) with a rawness and intimacy that has already earned her a Critics’ Circle award for best actress, and marked her out as a leading contender for the Golden Globes, Baftas and Oscars. The Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw called her “unselfconsciously beguiling”, while Rolling Stone predicted audiences “will be talking about Jessie Buckley’s performance for years”. Continue rea...

Politics

18 h. ago Jessie Buckley's 'mysterious husband's identity unmasked' after years of secrecy

The 36-year-old Hamnet star’s husband has a secret showbiz past

Politics

27 h. ago Hamnet felt like a 'sure thing' says Scottish actor who performed alongside Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal

Hamnet will be released on Friday

Politics

31 h. ago BRIAN VINER reviews Hamnet: Give Jessie an Oscar! Buckley turns in a tour de force as Shakespeare's grieving wife in this deeply soulful weepie...

Buckley plays Agnes Shakespeare, better known to posterity as Anne Hathaway.

Politics

31 h. ago Revealed: Jessie Buckley's 'secret' husband is a former X Factor producer with a surprisingly starry CV

Oscar-nominated actress Jessie Buckley's husband is a former X Factor producer who worked alongside Simon Cowell, The Daily Mail can reveal.

Culture

45 h. ago Adolescence's Owen Cooper, Jessie Buckley and Aimee Lou Wood lead the British and Irish hopes at the 2026 SAG Awards as nominations are announced

Owen Cooper and the cast of Adolescence are once again leading the British and Irish hopes during the 2026 awards season.

Events

61 h. ago Jessie Buckley scores Actor Award nod after Critics Choice Awards triumph

The 36-year-old received a nod for her role as William Shakespeare’s wife Agnes Hathaway – historically known as Anne – in historical drama Hamnet.

Events

69 h. ago Jessie Buckley says she was 'brutalised' on Andrew Lloyd Webber reality show

The West End actress finished in second place on the show which saw contestants compete to win the role of Nancy in the West End production of hit musical Oliver!

Politics

2 d. ago Jessie Buckley says she was ‘brutalised’ on Andrew Lloyd Webber reality show I’d Do Anything

‘Hamnet’ star hit out at BBC series for ‘unfairly objectifying’ her when she was just 17

Politics

2 d. ago Jessie Buckley says she was 'brutalised' and experienced 'unfair objectification' as a teen on Andrew Lloyd Webber's TV talent show I'd Do Anything

The actress, 36, launched her career in 2008 as a contestant on the reality show which was a competition to win the role of Nancy in a West End production of hit musical Oliver!

Culture

3 d. ago Jessie Buckley says she was 'brutalised' during her stint on Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'bonkers' TV talent show I'd Do Anything

The actress, 36, launched her career in 2008 as a contestant on the reality show which was a competition to win the role of Nancy in a West End production of hit musical Oliver!

Culture

3 d. ago Jessie Buckley had the ‘deep need’ to become a mother after filming Hamnet

The 36-year-old admitted that embodying a mother mourning the loss of a child made her feel drawn to becoming a parent.

Politics

3 d. ago Hamnet review: Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley enthral in Shakespeare tearjerker

Chloé Zhao’s clever adaptation grounds the Bard’s backstory in love, loss and the natural world

Politics

3 d. ago The rise of Jessie Buckley: Why the Hamnet star is set for Oscar glory

The Irish actor has had a fascinating career since she almost won Andrew Lloyd Webber’s TV talent show as a teen

Politics

4 d. ago New DNA breakthrough unmasks Jack the Ripper and identifies killer

A new DNA breakthrough could have finally unravelled the identity of Jack the Ripper, the notorious serial killer who terrorised the streets of Victorian London

Events

4 d. ago Hamnet review – Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley beguile and captivate in audacious Shakespearean tragedy

Chloé Zhao’s film version of Maggie O’Farrell’s myth-making novel powerfully reimagines the agonising loss of a child as the source of Hamlet’s grand stage drama‘The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears ” This is Francis Bacon’s essay Of Parents and Children; maybe they were more secret in his day than ours. This kind of secrecy and revelation is part of Chloé Zhao’s deeply felt romantic fantasy about the origin of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. It locates the play’s beginning in the imagined anguish of Shakespeare and his wife Agnes (or Anne) Hathaway at the death of their son Hamnet at the age of 11 in 1596, a few years before the play’s first performance.The nearness of the names is not supposed to be some monumental Freudian slip; there is linguistic evidence that the two could be used interchangeably. The movie is inspired by Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel of the same name – Zhao co-wrote the screenplay with O’Farrell – as well as the 2004 essay T...

Politics

4 d. ago Timothée Chalamet and Jessie Buckley in Oscar surge as they win Critics Choice awards

The Marty Supreme and Hamnet stars are jockeying for pole position for the big Hollywood prize after a night in which One Battle After Another and Adolescence were recognisedTimothée Chalamet and Jessie Buckley have surged into serious contention for the Oscars for their roles in, respectively, Marty Supreme and Hamnet, after picking up the top prizes for acting at the Critics Choice awards on Sunday.Chalamet, who has been on a highly visible promotional tour for the film, defeated Oscar favourite Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another) in the best actor race, as well as Michael B Jordan (Sinners) and Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon). Chalamet, who plays a wannabe table-tennis champ in the early 1950s in Marty Supreme, thanked Kylie Jenner in his acceptance speech, saying: “Thank you to my partner for three years I love you. I couldn’t do this without you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.” Continue reading...

Events

4 d. ago Jessie Buckley sets pulses racing with comment about Paul Mescal at Critics Choice Awards

Irish actors co-star in Chloé Zhao’s ‘Hamnet’ adaptation

Events

4 d. ago Jessie Buckley's unstoppable rise from reality TV to Oscar nominee as she wins Critics Choice award after life

The Irish actress was just 18 when she appeared on BBC show I'd Do Anything in a bid to land the role of Nancy - narrowly being pipped to the post by Jodie Prenger.

Events