Are there hidden photos of cardis somewhere? 😀
I'm back from Hamnet. It was very good, I thought. The acting was excellent - even the children were good, which is not something I say often, as child actors in main roles can often spoil a film, as they don't have the experience to carry the audience with them. To be fair, despite the title and story, the kids didn't have huge parts, and when they were acting they were basically playing children for the most part, so, you know.
I would have preferred to see Will have a Stratford accent, or at least a burr. The actor does have a very sexy voice, but he sounds too public school RP for Shakespeare, and he was acting that accent anyway, as he's Irish, so could just as easily have acted a different one. Still, the Americans might not have liked that so much.
Otherwise, I loved it. Obviously it was very sad in parts - my hankie was in and out of my bag - but the relationship between Will and Anne (called Agnes in this) was believable, and there was chemistry between the actors. I will watch it again when it gets to Netflix or whoever picks it up for the telly. Emily Watson played a good role as Shakespeare's mother, too. The story of the man behind the playwright is always interesting I think. I'm about to start a course on that, funnily enough. I doubt that much of the story of Hamnet is factually true, other than the bare bones, but we'll never know, and I don't really understand why some people treat historical fiction as a history lecture. Anyway, if you're not sure whether to brave the elements and see it, I would say go.
Re AF wine - my advice as a fellow scrooge when it comes to forking out £££ for soft drinks is to only get the stuff that has the wine that's been de-alcoholised on the label. The supermarket ones tend to just say 'de-alcoholised wine', and are very variable, whereas the ones that are pinot grigio, or whatever you liked to drink are more likely to be to your taste. I like Not Guilty pino grigio. It's about a fiver a bottle and can be bought in supermarkets and on Amazon. Bon Voyage is decent, too IMO, and similarly cheap priced.