It’s comedy as you like it
UPSTART CROW BBC2, 8.30pm
VERILY, we are heading back to Stratford-upon-Avon for a third series of the sitcom where clever, funny and balding wordsmith David Mitchell plays clever, funny and balding wordsmith William Shakespeare.
If you’ve been put off in the past, fearing your knowledge of the bard’s great works would mean most of the jokes went sailing over your head, then fear not.
A basic GCSE knowledge (you know – should have read the books and plays, possibly just watched the films) will suffice. If you’re more familiar than that, there’s probably a load more references and inside gags you can chuckle along to.
But if not, there’s also plenty of daft humour, clever characters and inventive swearwords given a medieval slant (unsurprisingly, as it’s written by Ben Elton) to keep you laughing along.
And there’s also a great cast to savour including Liza Tarbuck, Paula Wilcox and Harry Enfield (as Shakespeare’s wife, mum and dad), plus Mark Heap, Dominic Coleman and guest stars including Nigel Planer.
Gemma Whelan also puts in a fantastic turn as Kate, aspiring actress and daughter of Will’s London landlord, who has a fantastic modern and intellectual slant on a lot of our hero’s works and musings.
In this first episode, we find Will desperately seeking inspiration for his new play A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
It’s not quite as hilarious as his company leader Richard Burbage wants, and he’s struggling to find a comical name and interesting look for one of its characters.
If only his manservant Bottom could help…