Ian McKellen questions Hamnet's "improbable" plot – but predicts Oscars success

There are few actors working today who are more well-versed in the world of Shakespeare than Sir Ian McKellen – who has played a huge range of the Bard's most iconic characters on stage over the years.

But the Lord of the Rings icon has admitted he was not too impressed by Chloé Zhao's awards-contending film Hamnet, which imagines events surrounding the death of the playwright's son and suggests that the tragedy could have inspired Shakespeare to pen Hamlet.

The film has won rave reviews from critics, with Jessie Buckley's incredible turn as Shakespeare's wife Agnes [more commonly referred to as Anne] being singled out for particular praise. But McKellen wasn't quite so convinced by the film.

"I don’t quite get it," he said in an interview with The Independent. "I’m not very interested in trying to work out where Shakespeare’s imagination came from, but it certainly didn’t just come from family life.”

And although McKellen admitted the film was likely to pick up an Oscar or two when the ceremony arrives next month, he went on to describe aspects of the plot as "improbable" and compared it to 1999 best picture winner Shakespeare in Love, which he said "had odd views as to how plays get put on."

He continued: "Shakespeare’s perhaps the most famous person who ever lived, so of course there is some interest in what he looked like, what his relationship with his family was.

"And we can’t know, but the idea Anne Hathaway has never seen a play before? It’s improbable, considering what her husband did for a living. And she doesn’t seem to know what a play is! I think there are a few doubts of probability."

Of course, it's worth noting that Hamnet is intended as a work of historical fiction rather than a completely truthful account of Shakespeare's family life, something which writer Maggie O'Farrell makes clear in the afterword of her source novel.

"This is a work of fiction, inspired by the short life of a boy who died in Stratford, Warwickshire, in the summer of 1596," she wrote.

Hamnet is up for eight Oscars at the upcoming awards, with star Jessie Buckley considered the runaway favourite to win best actress. However, it faces stiff competition from the likes of Sinners and One Battle After Another in the other categories, including the all-important best picture.

We awarded the film the full five stars in our own Radio Times review, calling it a "masterly study of loss" and hailing Buckley's "superb" lead performance.

Hamnet is now showing in UK cinemas.

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