Sunday, December 31, 2023

TV review - "Upstart Crow"

 Ben Elton returns to the world of historical sitcom, though while this has some of the rhythms of Blackadder it is more warm hearted being a family/work sitcom. It's about Shakespeare the working writer, with a family in Stratford (good to see Pauline from Man about the House  as his mum), and associates in London.

David Mitchell is superb as the Bard. The other actors are fine too though no one quite hits the heights of say Tony Robinson. Some of it is very funny. Other times it gets repetitive. The episode where Hamnet dies - the second last one apart from the locked in special - is very moving. I wish they'd done another season where Will has a lot of success behind him but has to deal with getting old. Hilarious take on Ricky Gervais.tv

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