The one thing Hamnet gets wrong about Elizabethan England

On a special episode of the Daily Mail's Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things podcast, hosts Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams are joined by historian Alice Loxton to separate fact from fiction in the Oscar-nominated film Hamnet. Directed by Chloé Zhao and based on Maggie O'Farrell's acclaimed 2020 novel of the same name, Hamnet follows William Shakespeare, played by Irish actor Paul Mescal, and his wife Anne Hathaway, reimagined in the film as Agnes and played by Jessie Buckley, as they grapple with the devastating loss of their only son to plague. Both the novel and film are loosely historical accounts drawing on the unproven theory that the death of Hamnet in 1596 inspired the creation of Shakespeare's most famous play, Hamlet, first performed around 1600. The film has released to near universal critical acclaim, with Irish actress Jessie Buckley widely tipped to take home the Oscar for her stirring portrayal of the Bard's grieving wife.