3 h. ago Hamnet review: This powerful exploration of love and grief is exquisitely acted and will break your heart

Famously, little is known of the private life of William Shakespeare, still less that of his wife, Anne Hathaway, and it is important to remember that as Hamnet weaves its enchanting spell.

Politics

47 h. ago Paul Mescal will do his own singing in upcoming Beatles biopic: ‘It has really lit a fire’

‘I’ve learned so much,’ says the Irish actor as he prepares to play Paul McCartney

Events

48 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

49 h. ago Paul Mescal reveals he will sing as Paul McCartney in Beatles films

The Hamnet actor will appear as the Beatles star in four films directed by Sir Sam Mendes.

Politics

50 h. ago Paul Mescal on why he's 'bored' of his 'sad' image and the cruel comments that keep him off Instagram

The Irish actor also revealed why he feels ‘nervous’ about turning 30 next month

Politics

53 h. ago Paul Mescal reveals he's started writing his own music after filming the Beatles biopic and shares how Paul McCartney reacted to learning the Irish actor would be playing him

He plays McCartney in the four-part film series, alongside Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison.

Culture

58 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

3 d. ago Arsenal forced to turn comments off after 'vile' replies to new transfer announcement

Arsenal were forced to turn off the Instagram comments after new signing Smilla Holmberg was subject to sexist abuse during her transfer announcement

Sport

5 d. ago Paul Mescal addresses claims he’s stepping back from acting until 2028

The in-demand Irish actor prompted speculation after saying audiences would ‘get a break’ from seeing him over the next two years

Politics

5 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

5 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

5 d. ago Bjork blasts 'cruel colonizer' Trump amid his wild Greenland takeover threat

In an X post, the Nordic songstress called the prospect of seeing Greenland going from 'one cruel coloniser to another' a concept 'too brutal to even imagine.'

Politics

5 d. ago Björk urges Greenland to declare independence as Trump threatens takeover

‘The chance that my fellow Greenlanders might go from one cruel colonizer to another is too brutal to even imagine,’ the Icelandic singer wrote

Politics

6 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

6 d. ago Jessie Buckley makes Paul Mescal cry with Critics Choice speech: ‘I could drink you like water’

Paul Mescal became emotional during Jessie Buckley’s Critics Choice Awards speech, where she paid tribute to her Hamnet co-star.

Politics

6 d. ago Jessie Buckley makes Paul Mescal cry as she showers her Hamnet co

Jessie Buckley had a night to remember on Sunday, scooping a surprise win at the star-studded Critics Choice Awards.

Politics

8 d. ago Hamnet star EMILY WATSON discusses growing up in a 'religious sect', working with Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley, and the role she regrets turning down

After a 30-year career EMILY WATSON has landed a starring role in the most talked-about film of 2026, Hamnet. She tells Richard Godwin about co-star Paul Mescal

Politics

8 d. ago Paul Mescal hints he will 'disappear from the spotlight until 2028' as he prepares to play Sir Paul McCartney in upcoming Beatles biopic

Paul Mescal has hinted that he could disappear from the spotlight until he emerges in cinemas in 2028, as he prepares to portray Sir Paul McCartney in the upcoming Beatles biopics. 

Events

8 d. ago Paul Mescal vows to start 'rationing' work as he faces 'different priorites'

Paul Mescal has revealed he intends to start 'rationing' his upcoming workload in a bid to prevent himself from staying in a career which he no longer enjoys

Politics

9 d. ago Paul Mescal hints at career change: ‘I have different priorities I want to attend to'

‘I don’t want to resent the thing I love,’ the Irish actor said of the film industry

Politics