26 January 2026 – We went to see this National Theatre production of ‘Hamlet’ shown at the cinema. It was a very modern adaptation of the play and, whilst it was interesting, it was not great, with the exception of Francesca Mills, who played Ophelia with great gusto.

One of us fell asleep through a large part of it, whilst another, who had never seen any version of Hamlet struggled with it (as I would have done, if I had never seen Hamlet before).

For me, and one other, we liked the alternative nature of the performance on the one hand, but would have preferred to see a more traditional version.

Of course, it is very likely that this performance was deliberately designed to appeal to younger audiences, keeping Shakespeare alive for the next generation; and really, none of us oldies can really complain about that.

Onwards to February, when the new Odeon cinema comes to Bristol, and I (alone) will take advantage of that, in addition to our existing arrangement.

Fraser