# Upstart Crow (2016)

> A bawdy British sitcom imagining William Shakespeare juggling his rising theatre career in London with a turbulent family life in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/58527

## Facts

- Seasons: 3
- Episodes: 18
- Episode runtime: 30 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: comedy
- Created by: Ben Elton
- Network: BBC Two
- Cast: David Mitchell, Liza Tarbuck, Paula Wilcox, Harry Enfield, Spencer Jones, Helen Monks, Mark Heap, Gemma Whelan
- TMDB rating: 7.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4793190/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: none
- Tone: witty, irreverent, breezy, satirical, bawdy

## What critics say

Audiences broadly rate the series positively as a light, witty historical sitcom, with ratings gently easing across its three seasons.

## Synopsis

Upstart Crow (2016-2018) is a British period sitcom created by Ben Elton for BBC Two. David Mitchell plays William Shakespeare, a rising playwright in Elizabethan London who is trying to make a name for himself while still being a husband and father back home in Stratford-upon-Avon. Liza Tarbuck plays his wife Anne Hathaway, a sharp and unimpressed partner who keeps his feet on the ground, while Paula Wilcox and Harry Enfield add comic friction as his mother Mary Arden and father John Shakespeare. The engine of the show is the gap between Will's ambitions and his domestic obligations, with each half hour built from rival playwrights, theatre company politics, money worries, and household squabbles. Across three seasons of six episodes each, it stays a light, self-contained comedy with recurring characters rather than a continuing plot. The tone is breezy and satirical, poking fun at literary pretension and the theatre world with anachronistic wit and mock-earnest bawdiness. Fans of Blackadder, Horrible Histories, and The Vicar of Dibley will find a similar mix of period costume farce, cheeky wordplay, and warm domestic comedy.

## Shows like Upstart Crow

- [Shakespeare & Hathaway - Private Investigators (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/67034)
- [Life's Too Short (2011)](https://ember.film/tv/35190)
- [The Fast Show (1994)](https://ember.film/tv/2410)
- [Staged (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/87518)
- [The Vicar of Dibley (1994)](https://ember.film/tv/2630)
- [Trying (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/82564)
- [Ghosts (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/15946)
- [Back (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/64197)
- [The Windsors (2016)](https://ember.film/tv/58580)
- [Not Going Out (2006)](https://ember.film/tv/1309)

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