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Last week, I enjoyed the ARC of The Oxford Affair by Lynne Kaufman. Tina loved Raising Hair by Chloe Dalton.

Hamnet is the 2025 film adaptation of the 2020 book, Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. I appreciated the novel as a story about ordinary (mostly) people in the Elizabethan era. William Shakespeare makes limited appearances. The story focuses on his wife, Agnes.

Agnes is played by Jessie Buckley who received most of the Best Actress awards for 2025 performances, including the Oscar. I saw her in Women Talking, another powerful performance. I’m planning to watch some of her other films.

I was curious about the filming locations. Herefordshire, England, especially the black-and-white village of Woebly with its timber frame buildings was a primary location, according to this article from The Independent.

The Charterhouse in London was the location for many of the London locations in the film. I’ve watched other shows that used the Charterhouse, including Miss Austen Regrets and Man in an Orange Shirt.

The Charterhouse in 1770 by William Henry Toms

Besides Hamnet, Peacock also offered the short documentary, Inside Look: Hamnet. I knew from watching it that the filmmakers built their own version of The Globe Theater. I wondered why they didn’t use the reproduction in London (if we were going to London this summer we could see A Midsummer Night’s Dream there — wouldn’t that be cool?). This article in Variety answered that question — the London reproduction is too ornate and too large for the purposes of the film.

People always want to know if the book or the movie was better.

There were moments when I was aware that I had a deeper emotional connection to the characters and their situation than Rick did, sitting next to me. I knew background that he didn’t know because he didn’t read the book. But I never felt the absence to such a degree that I stopped the movie and told him what he was missing. I’ve done that in the past. There was always just enough in this film that it didn’t feel necessary with Hamnet.

Whether you read the book or not, I highly recommend this film because it earned its final moving scene. I know that there was a similar scene at the end of the book, but it didn’t move me in quite the same way. The film used visual methods that aren’t available to authors, making this film a valuable addition to the experience of the story.