Ben Elton’s excellent sitcom Upstart Crow has been renewed for a 2nd series the BBC announced today.
Starring David Mitchell as the titular character, the show follows the life and times of Will Shakespeare as he starts to make a name for himself in London, while trying to balance life as a husband, father and son for his family in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Beyond his wife Anne, daughter Susannah and mother and father, other characters include his servant Bottom, his friends Kate and Marlowe, his theatrical troupe and his rival Robert Greene.
Originally commissioned as part of the BBC’s Shakespeare Festival 2016, which marked the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death, the series when on to gather a healthy audience of over two million viewers.
Mitchell commented “I’m thrilled that we’ll be making a second series of Upstart Crow, but sad that my favourite part of the creative process – the quote for the press release – is now over.”
Like the first series, the second will consist of 6 x 30min episodes, but also include an additional Christmas special in 2017. If you’ve yet to see the show, it’s basically Shakespeare meets Blackadder, and you can catch up on iPlayer right now.
Upstart Crow Series 2 will air in 2017.
