Upstart Crow
- TV sitcom
- BBC Two
- 2016 - 2020
- 21 episodes (3 series)
Sitcom about the life of jobbing playwright William Shakespeare, struggling to find inspiration in Tudor London. Also features David Mitchell, Rob Rouse, Gemma Whelan, Liza Tarbuck, Harry Enfield and more.
Episode menu
Series 1, Episode 1 - Star Crossed Lovers
Broadcast details
- Date
- Monday 9th May 2016
- Time
- 10pm
- Channel
- BBC Two
- Length
- 30 minutes
Repeats
Show past repeats
Date | Time | Channel |
---|---|---|
Saturday 24th February 2018 | 9:00pm | Gold |
Monday 23rd April 2018 | 10:00pm | Gold |
Tuesday 24th April 2018 | 1:55am | Gold |
Sunday 7th April 2019 | 10:50pm | Gold |
Monday 8th April 2019 | 12:10am | Gold |
Sunday 8th September 2019 | 1:10am | Gold |
Sunday 8th September 2019 | 3:25am | Gold |
Sunday 13th October 2019 | 3:25am | Gold |
Friday 1st November 2019 | 3:20am | Gold |
Saturday 2nd November 2019 | 12:40am | Gold |
Monday 5th June 2023 | 11:10pm | Gold |
Monday 3rd July 2023 | 12:00am | Gold |
Monday 3rd July 2023 | 2:55am | Gold |
Monday 4th September 2023 | 12:00am | Gold |
Monday 4th September 2023 | 3:25am | Gold |
Wednesday 8th November 2023 | 10:00pm | BBC2 |
Cast & crew
David Mitchell | Will Shakespeare |
Rob Rouse | Bottom |
Gemma Whelan | Kate |
Liza Tarbuck | Anne Hathaway |
Harry Enfield | John Shakespeare |
Paula Wilcox | Mary Arden |
Helen Monks | Susanna |
Steve Speirs | Burbage |
Dominic Coleman | Condell |
Mark Heap | Sir Robert Greene |
Spencer Jones | Kempe |
Larrington Walker | Apothecary |
Kieran Hodgson | Florian |
Ben Elton | Writer |
Matt Lipsey | Director |
Gareth Edwards | Producer |
Myfanwy Moore | Executive Producer |
Jake Bernard | Editor |
Julian Fullalove | Production Designer |
Grant Olding | Composer |
Video
A lovelorn loon
Will and Bottom look after a love-sick young man. Sadly he's also a bit of an idiot.
Featuring: David Mitchell (Will Shakespeare), Rob Rouse (Bottom) & Kieran Hodgson (Florian).
Press
Very early on in Upstart Crow, a collaborative Ben Elton-William Shakespeare vehicle for the hopelessly thick and untalented David Mitchell, a member of the studio audience reacted to Liza Tarbuck just saying something in an accent, with her titty-dumplings to the fore with the kind of prolonged loud screeching fit that you or I could only hope to achieve while dousing our genitals in hydrochloric acid. My heart sank. But soon it actually began to get funny, sometimes very. The audience member had obviously been led out by an intern with the promise of a cup of tea and perhaps, actually it's to be hoped, a reassuring whisper of "you're not clever enough for this, dear". By the end, this mashup of Will's artistic frustrations in an England seething with stupidity, and as relevant to today as to 1584, had become a delight, to the extent the audience was anticipating the gags. Of a fiendishly cunning plot to frustrate young love, in which it had become necessary to procure a play-dead potion, Mitchell's brimming "I can't see how it can possibly go wrong" had much of the hubristic glee in seeing it coming of a Mainwaring, a Hancock.
Inevitable parallels - there was much God's bodikins! and gut-porridge stuff - will be drawn with Blackadder, although perhaps someone could tell me why that's in any conceivable way a bad thing. But Mr Elton has (almost) wholly redeemed himself for crimes against David Haig in the relentlessly smile-free elf'n'safety trudge that was 2013's The Wright Way, and it's nice to see he's got his brain back. And I do like Spencer Jones as Kempe, played as Ricky Gervais as David Brent - way too knowingly see-what-I-did-there, but that's how Ben rolls.
Euan Ferguson, The Guardian, 15th May 2016We had a new comedy from Ben Elton, a phrase that's likely to strike fear into the hearts of any sitcom fan after the woeful The Wright Way. Thankfully Upstart Crow saw him back at his best although the show seems to have been made up of deleted scenes from Blackadder II. The show focuses on the life of Will Shakespeare (David Mitchell) as he splits his time between his family home in Stratford-Upon-Avon and his digs in London. As this was an opening episode, Elton seems to have focused on a universal subject matter namely the Bard's creation of Romeo and Juliet. In Upstart Crow though Shakespeare has all intention of having his young couple living happily ever after that is until he allows the lovelorn son of Sir Robert Greene (Mark Heap) to stay at his home until he goes to university. Unfortunately Florian (Kieran Hodgson) soon falls for Shakespeare's serving girl Kate (Gemma Whelan) and the Bard is forced to find a way out of a predicament that could cause him serious bother. Although you can see some of the gags coming a mile off, especially what will ultimately happen to Florian, Elton perfectly paces the show so that the gags never overpower the story. There's also a great running gag about the line 'Where For Art Thou' Romeo that is actually very clever and Elton also satirises the sexual politics of the time to great effect. Of the cast I found that Mitchell really anchored the action well as Shakespeare and his tortured academic persona really suited that of the Bard. In supporting roles I found Liza Tarbuck and Harry Enfield gave memorable turns as Shakespeare's wife and father respectively. Similarly amusing was the performance given by Dominic Coleman as the go-to performer of female parts who was hurt that he couldn't play the thirteen-year-old Juliet. Although there is the argument that a lot of Upstart Crow is just recycled Blackadder gags that's not exactly a bad thing as Elton's historical comedy still remains one of the best British sitcoms of all time. Whilst I don't think Upstart Crow will ever match Blackadder in terms of quality I still found it to be a consistently funny sitcom and a return to form for Ben Elton who I'd almost written off after the debacle that was The Wright Way.
Matt, The Custard TV, 15th May 2016Ben Elton's Upstart Crow seems stuck in the 1980s, or 1970s, with its embarrassing canned laughter (if it's actually a studio audience, then it deserves to be confined to a can) and eagerness to please.
David Mitchell portrays a more modern William Shakespeare, who is struggling to make a name for himself - not helped by an uncaring world, and family. The Ricky Gervais mickey take character (Kempe - Spencer Jones) is faintly amusing, but Elton crams in far too many words - many of them, sadly, pathetically juvenile.
Paddy Shennan, Liverpool Echo, 13th May 2016Review: Upstart Crow
While I didn't feel a hankering to watch more, and there weren't many laugh-out-loud moments, Upstart Crow deserves some time to find its feet. The cast are good, the concept has potential, and Ben Elton's on surer ground than The Wright Way debacle of 2013.
Dan Owen, Dan's Media Digest, 12th May 2016Loving Ben Elton's new Shakespeare sitcom
There's no way of saying this without shredding the last vestiges of my critical credibility, but this new Ben Elton comedy series, Upstart Crow (BBC2, Mondays), about William Shakespeare: I'm loving it and think it's really, really funny.
James Delingpole, The Spectator, 12th May 2016Review: Upstart Crow, BBC Two
David Mitchell, like all the cast, is superb, and his pedantic, sarcastic panel show persona works beautifully for the put-upon Will. Ben Elton's script is a gag-rich riot of clever comedy, the kind that has to be watched at least twice to appreciate all the jokes and references, the sight gags and throwaways. Complete joy from start to finish.
Veronica Lee, The Arts Desk, 10th May 2016Ben Elton finds the comedy in Shakespeare's history
With David Mitchell playing the Bard as a flowery show-off, there's lots to enjoy in this knockabout sitcom with Liza Tarbuck.
Julia Raeside, The Guardian, 10th May 2016Upstart Crow critics shouldn't be given credibility
An attack on critics who are angry of Upstart Crow's use of what is wrongly described as "canned laughter".
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 10th May 2016I'd been looking forward to this new series. It's a sitcom about Shakespeare, written by Ben Elton and starring David Mitchell and so, naturally, anyone with half a brain would be anticipating it. But perhaps I set my expectations too high as it was a disappointment.
Mitchell plays Shakespeare, trying to keep his temper as he composes Romeo and Juliet in his messy kitchen while his family deride his work. He asks his teenage daughter to recite Juliet's words and she responds like every modern teenager when faced with Shakespeare's ornate language: "I don't say stuff like this, Dad. I'd sound like a complete turnip!" Yet he can hardly made it sound like authentic teenspeak: "Ugh. Shut up, Romeo. You're so weird. I hate you."
Things perk up when Elton makes some digs at privilege and the upper classes, mocking "the English posh boy" and their membership of Oxbridge clubs like The Fisted Peasant. It's funny in places but not quite big enough for its boots.
Julie McDowall, The National (Scotland), 9th May 2016Ben Elton talks about Upstart Crow
As Ben Elton gives the Bard the sitcom treatment in Upstart Crow, he argues that Bill suffered from class prejudice then - and is still suffering from it now...
Ben Elton, Radio Times, 9th May 2016What's in a name? When it's Ben Elton, quite a lot, considering his new sitcom marks the writer's return to a historical setting for the first time since Blackadder. The principal character in this comedy should offer more meticulous wordplay than Bladders could: the action revolves around one William Shakespeare (David Mitchell). Sadly, this veers towards Elton's insufferable The Wright Way, with double-entendre-strewn dialogue masking a distinct lack of laughs.
Mark Gibbings-Jones, The Guardian, 9th May 2016Upstart Crow review
Gadzooks! After some high-profile flops in both hemispheres, Ben Elton has rediscovered his mojo... and all it took was a return trip to Elizabethan England.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 9th May 2016Ben Elton's Shakespeare sitcom was not too Bard
Its sitcom format feels lumbering and it has a complacent tendency to rely on David Mitchell's waspish delivery of cod-Shakespearese - but, since it's the poor chap's anniversary, I could give it one more chance next week. Not quite Bard yet, then.
Tim Martin, The Telegraph, 9th May 2016Preview: Upstart Crow
Never mind Leicester winning the league, what odds would you have got on Ben Elton being funny again? But hold the front page: Elton has got his mojo back. Well, everything is relative. After his appalling The Wright Way it looked like the acclaimed comic might never make us laugh again. But he has done it with Upstart Crow, which, let's not mince words, is Blackadder Does The Bard.
Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 4th May 2016