‘Like a tired boxer, battered by applause’: as Andrew Scott’s biopic premieres, Richard Eyre remembers Ian Charleson’s superb, near-death Hamlet

One of the finest Hamlets seen on stage … Ian Charleson in an earlier version of the play, on tour with the Cambridge Theatre Company in 1974. Photograph: Donald Cooper/Alamy

Ian Charleson was one of the finest actors of his generation and an important figure in the fight for gay rights. Yet the extraordinary circumstances of his final performance as Hamlet, just months before his death, are less familiar.

Now, a new film is bringing that haunting production back to life. Elsinore, directed by Simon Stone and starring Andrew Scott as the Scottish actor, will premiere at Telluride this weekend before opening the London film festival in October.