Upstart Crow

Upstart Crow By Episode

• Star Crossed Lovers (#101)

  Will struggles to find inspiration for Romeo while at the same time having to deal with an angry actor, a very annoying house-guest, and his family's not-terribly-helpful script suggestions.

• The Play's The Thing (#102)

  Will's controversial new play is about to be presented to Queen Elizabeth when it goes missing. As the finger of suspicion points at his best friend Marlowe can Will come up with a way to recover his stolen masterpiece? And given its politically sensitive content, is he really wise to want it back?

• The Apparel Proclaims The Man (#103)

  Will hopes to move up in the world when he is invited to Lord Southampton's party. But what should a poorly-educated country boy wear to London's poshest do? And when his rival Sir Robert Greene gives him some fashion tips is it a double bluff, a triple bluff, or something even more fiendish?

• Love Is Not Love (#104)

  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?

• What Bloody Man Is That? (#105)

  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.

• The Quality of Mercy (#106)

  There's money to be made investing in cargos from the New World: but while Marlowe invests in tobacco and potato products, Will would rather invest in building a new theatre. But when Will's savings go missing he's forced to make a rather unusual bargain with his rival Robert Greene. Meanwhile Kate's frustration with the lack of roles for women leads her to make a rather dramatic intervention.

• The Green Eyed Monster (#107)

  Will wants to up his family's social standing, so when a Moorish Prince comes to town he plans to use him to impress the nobility. But things go very awry when a hanky gets into the wrong hands.

• I Know Thee Not, Old Man (#108)

  When Will's bullying former school teacher invites himself to stay Will has to confront the demons of his childhood, but it soon turns out there's a lot more at stake, including Will's life.

• I Did Adore A Twinkling Star (#109)

  Will has to write a romance set in an exotic foreign location. Meanwhile Kate has fallen for Marlowe but he's off to an exotic foreign location. Is inspiration on the way? All aboard for Verona!

• Food of Love (#110)

  Will's invented an amazing new dramatic form: the musical! Problem is he needs the help of the greatest songwriter of the age, Thomas Morley, and he's got some ideas of his own.

• Beware My Sting (#111)

  Will's pleased with his new play The Taming of the Shrew. But for some reason the story of a strong-willed lady humiliated by a man doesn't go down well with any of the women in Will's life.

• Sweet Sorrow (#112)

  Will has finished Romeo and Juliet but now there's a lot of competition for who will play Juliet. Kate feels the part should be hers. If only ladyacting weren't against the law.

• Christmas 2017 - A Christmas Crow (#113)

  In this festive episode of the Shakespearean comedy, Will has promised his wife Anne that he'll 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.

• Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be (#114)

  Will is just finishing writing A Midsummer Night's Dream, a tale of love potions, enchantment and a wood full of fairies. He's very pleased with how realistic it is as he based it on his own experience. But his Burbage and the other actors tell him it lacks a little comedy, like say a character with a funny name or a big visual joke. Meanwhile back in Will's lodgings where on earth is his servant Bottom going to put that donkey head? Kate has problems of her own, because Lord Egeus (Nigel Planer) a rather old but very wealthy gentleman has taken a shine to her, and Robert Greene is determined to be the matchmaker. Along the way we learn a little more about how Will and Anne found love, and how Will managed to get hold of a love potion.

• Wild Laughter in the Throat of Death (#115)

  Will Shakespeare's 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. In the meantime Greene has hit on an ingenious new way to destroy Will's reputation by excluding him from his high-brow literary set, and Marlowe's reputation is in such a bad way that he could really do with being dead for a bit. Only Will's dad John is pleased because now that Will has bought him a coat of arms he is officially a gentleman, even if none of his behaviour is in any way gentlemanly. Meanwhile the players need another box office smash and it looks like Hamlet is going to need a bit more thinking about. As luck would have it, Will does have an idea for a new comedy but there's something not quite right about the title for Love's Labour's Licked.

• If You Prick Us, Do We Not Bleed? (#116)

  London is full of anti-immigrant rioting. Will (David Mitchell) 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. As it happens Will's newest play, the Merchant of Venice, is also about an oppressed outsider. But who will play the ground-breaking character of Shylock? Step forward the greatest actor of the age, Wolf Hall (Ben Miller), a man with amazing stage presence and some rather controversial theories about who really wrote Shakespeare's plays...

• Sign No More (#117)

  With the great fug making London too smelly to stay in Will and his friends have all come to Stratford. Will hopes for some peace and quiet so he can write but with Kate and Marlowe bickering, Hamnet obsessed with playing at soldiers, Dad busy with his new role as Master of the Watch with not-so-able assistance of Sergeant Dogberry (Adrian Edmondson), and Sue excited about the upcoming masked ball there's very little peace to be had. But when Kate stands in for Sue at the masked ball she accidentally sets of 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. Anne has a pretty good idea where he might be, and sets off to get back her boy.

• The Most Unkindest Cut of All (#118)

  Will has decided to write a play about the life of Julius Caesar. The only problem is how to deal with his assassination. After all Her Majesty is not likely to approve of any play about doing in the head of state, and Robert Greene is particularly keen to label Will a traitor. Things are not going well in the theatre either. Burbage is hogging the limelight and the other players have decided to get together and depose him. Should Will back the conspirators? Or is there a way he can use his skill with words to stop the plotters in their tracks?

• Go On and I Will Follow (#119)

  The day of Will's son Hamnet's Confirmation is approaching and Anne has made sure it's been in Will's diary for months. The only problem is this also turns out to be the night of the first ever London Theatre Awards, and what with Will being the greatest writer of all time, and what with all the other theatre companies in London being closed all year because of the plague Will reckons he may be in with a chance of a prize. And there's another dilemma - if Will does go the London Theatre Awards who is going to be his "plus one"? He's heard that his favourite dark lady, Emilia Laier, may be free that evening... But as Will wrestles with the temptation of the London theatre there is a far bigger threat to his family's happiness lurking in the wings.

• A Crow Christmas Carol (#120)

  Will gets inspired by a ghostly travele to save Green's soul for Christmas by making him face his past, present and future with the help of his troupe.