In 1989, Ian Charleson walked onto the stage of the National Theatre as Hamlet. He was gay, he had AIDS, and within weeks of his final performance he would be gone.

This week, his story opened one of the world’s biggest film festivals. Elsinore, with Andrew Scott as Charleson, had its European premiere as the opening night gala of the 70th BFI London Film Festival at the Royal Festival Hall on Wednesday, October 7. Scott got a long standing ovation.

Who was Ian Charleson?

If you know the name, it’s probably from Chariots of Fire (1981). The Scottish actor played Olympic runner and missionary Eric Liddell in the film that won the Oscar for Best Picture. He also had a big stage career, and he was openly gay, PinkNews notes.

He was diagnosed with HIV in 1986. Three years later, Daniel Day-Lewis abruptly left Richard Eyre’s production of Hamlet at the National Theatre, and Charleson took over the role. He played it 24 times while seriously ill, IrishCentral reports, and died the following January, aged 40. His was among the first celebrity deaths in the UK openly linked to AIDS.

The film

Elsinore is directed by Simon Stone and written by Stephen Beresford. The cast is stacked with people you’ll recognise:

  • Andrew Scott as Ian Charleson (Scott also produces)
  • Olivia Colman as Professor Margaret Johnson, a pioneer of HIV/AIDS treatment and Charleson’s doctor
  • Johnny Flynn as director Richard Eyre
  • Joe Locke (yes, Charlie from Heartstopper), Billie Piper, Monica Dolan, Juliet Stevenson, Peter Mullan and more

According to TheWrap’s review, the film follows Charleson after Eyre offers him the part: he tells Eyre about his condition, insists he can do it, and keeps going through pneumonia that puts him in hospital on the night of the first preview. Day-Lewis appears only on monitors and from the wings. TheWrap calls it “both a sign of the enduring power of Shakespeare’s drama and a film about that power.”

Not everyone is sold on the film itself. The Film Stage’s TIFF review called it “overwrought” awards bait, and Pajiba found it “disappointingly derivative”. Even Pajiba’s headline calls Scott excellent, though. PinkNews has already floated him as a Best Actor frontrunner.

”The shame doesn’t lie with us”

At a BFI Screen Talk on Thursday, October 8, Scott was asked about a familiar complaint: that queer cinema leans too hard on tragedy. His answer, reported by PinkNews, got applause.

He said he welcomes the joyful stuff, naming Heartstopper, Heated Rivalry and Red, White & Royal Blue. But he drew a line on what tragic history means:

“The shame does not lie with the gay people. Shame lies with the governments who ignored the AIDS crisis.”

It’s a useful reframe, especially if you grew up after the worst of the epidemic. Telling these stories isn’t about wallowing in queer pain. It’s about putting the blame where it belongs, and remembering the people who kept working, loving and performing through it.

Scott also made clear this isn’t a misery film about a victim. “Ian was an enormously funny person and actor, somebody I have a kinship with,” he said, calling Charleson “an enormously brave person.” On the role itself, he told IrishCentral the key was understanding that “he was a man who had a great zest for life.”

And one moment from the premiere stands out. The real Margaret Johnson, the doctor Colman plays, was in the Royal Festival Hall. “The whole 2000 people stood for her,” Scott said.

When you can see it

  • US: limited cinema release from November 20, 2026 (Focus Features), per the BFI
  • UK: in cinemas January 29, 2027 (StudioCanal)
  • Ireland: also January 29, 2027, IrishCentral reports
  • London Film Festival: runs until October 18

If you only know Andrew Scott as the Hot Priest or from All of Us Strangers, this is the one to clear an evening for. Bring tissues. Then maybe look up Ian Charleson, and remember him laughing.

Sources: BFI; PinkNews, Oct 9 and Oct 8; IrishCentral; TheWrap; The Film Stage; Pajiba. Photo: Royal Festival Hall, Andreas Praefcke, 2011, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.