It has been a while since Ben Elton has been funny and Upstart Crow might hark back a little to Blackadder which he co-wrote with Richard Curtis from series 2 onwards.
Upstart Crow is a sitcom about Shakespeare concentrating in his domestic life with his family and his work life as a poet and playwright.
The first episode has Will (David Mitchell) practising lines from his new play he is writing, Romeo & Juliet with his teenage daughter who could be a talented actress, but she is living in a time when nothing is expected from women except to get married and it is certainly not acting as female roles were played by men.
Will Shakespeare is a man who shows of his way with words by using flowery language much to the chagrin of his rather Brummie family.
Elton has done his research and based some of the jokes very much in keeping with what is known about him, his family, lifestyle and of course his writing. Elton knows from his time with Blackadder that you also bring the jokes forward and make it tropical as well.
As always there is a little bit of politics, people getting ahead in life by doing things with farm animals at University (whoever is he talking about?) Then there is Shakespeare arriving in London and complaining about the state of transport as his mode of transport was replaced by a donkey service.
There is some able support from Harry Enfield, Paula Wilcox, Liza Tarbuck, Mark Heap and Helen Monks in the first episode. A good start in comparison with Elton's recent work.
