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Upstart Crow (2016)
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Ben Elton — Writer
Episodes 18
Star Crossed Lovers
Episode one sees Will struggle to find inspiration for Romeo while having to deal with an angry actor, a very annoying house-guest and his family’s not terribly helpful script suggestions.
Read MoreThe Play's the Thing
Just when Will’s controversial new play is about to be presented to Queen Elizabeth, it goes missing. As the finger of suspicion points to his best friend Marlowe, can Will come up with a way to recover his stolen masterpiece? Given its politically sensitive content, is he really wise to want it back?
Read MoreThe Apparel Proclaims The Man
Will hopes to move up in the world when he is invited to a high-society party hosted by Lord Southampton, but is unsure what a poorly-educated country boy should wear to one of London's most upmarket events. The playwright's rival Sir Robert Greene offers him some fashion tips, but is it a double bluff, a triple bluff, or something even more fiendish?
Read MoreLove is Not Love
Will has completed his final sonnet and senses literary immortality just around the corner. But will the fair youth and the dark lady like them as much as he hopes? And is Anne likely to be impressed that her husband’s 154 hot new love poems don’t contain much about her?
Read MoreWhat Bloody Man is That?
The plague leads Will and his friends to escape to the family home in Stratford. On the way, they meet three witches who have some surprising predictions to make about Will’s future, leading to a very serious case of house envy.
Read MoreThe Quality of Mercy
When Will's savings go missing, he is forced to make an unusual bargain with his rival. Kate's frustration with the lack of roles for women leads her to make a dramatic intervention.
Read MoreThe Green Eyed Monster
When a dashing African Prince comes to town, Will decides to befriend him.
Read MoreI Know Thee Not, Old Man
When his old teacher invites himself to stay, Will must confront some awful memories.
Read MoreI Did Adore a Twinkling Star
Will has to write a romance set in an exotic foreign location Kate has fallen for Marlowe.
Read MoreFood of Love
Will Shakespeare has invented an amazing new dramatic form: the greatest hits musical.
Read MoreBeware My Sting!
The women in Will's life are not impressed with his play about a strong woman humiliated.
Read MoreSweet Sorrow
Will's finished Romeo and Juliet but now there's competition over who will play Juliet.
Read MoreA Christmas Crow
Will has promised his wife Anne that he will be home in good time for a quiet Christmas with just the family. But when Marlowe, Kate and even the usually horrible Robert Greene look likely to be facing a miserable lonely Christmas in London, Will's big heart gets the better of him and he asks them all back with him to Stratford.
Read MoreLord, What Fools These Mortals Be!
Will needs inspiration for his new play A Midsummer Night's Dream. Meanwhile how can he get hold of some love potion, and where is Bottom going to put that stuffed donkey head?
Read MoreWild Laughter in the Throat of Death
Will Shakespeare has been working on his masterpiece. His friends tell him it's his greatest comedy yet, but Will insists that Hamlet isn't actually meant to be funny.
Read MoreIf You Prick Us, Do We Not Bleed?
London is full of anti-immigrant rioting. Will looks forward to an age when such sentiments are long-gone, but in the meantime he and the players plan to do their bit to help those worse off than themselves with a fund-raising charity gala night. “Inflated Pig's Bladder Day” is a triumph.
Read MoreSigh No More
When Kate stands in for Sue at the masked ball she accidentally sets off a chain of events that leaves Sue humiliated by the other local teenagers and Will needs to come up with a ruse to turn the tables on the bullies. Meanwhile in all the confusion Hamnet has gone missing.
Read MoreThe Most Unkindest Cut of All
Will's troupe plot against each other, but his defusing of the situation helps give him a better idea for his new play about Julius Caesar.
Read MoreGo On and I Will Follow
As Will wrestles with temptation a bigger threat to his family lurks in the wings.
Read MoreA Crow Christmas Carol
Things get Dickensian when a mysterious stranger inspires Will to get Greene to mend his evil ways with the help of three Christmas spirits.
Read MoreLockdown Christmas 1603
A plague has hit London and Will and Kate are isolating in Will's London lodgings just before Christmas,
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