William Shakespeare is back for a festive episode, played by David Mitchell. This Christmas episode is just a huge comment on what we have gone through this year. Everything we have done through because of COVID is mentioned but in a Shakespearian way. William Shakespeare and his landlady's daughter Kate are in lockdown together. David Mitchell is back as know it all Shakespeare and Gemma Whelan is back as Kate. Due to COVID restrictions this means that this episode only involves these two characters who constantly stay two metres apart for the entire episode.
Instead of COVID, it is 1603 and our two characters are in their own lockdown, hiding themselves away from the bubonic plague. Will is stockpiling food while complaining about others stockpiling. While Kate complains about people not wearing their bubonic beaks properly, people are wearing them around their necks when it should be around their nose. Just like today we hear about people not wearing masks properly, in 1603 they are facing the same issues.
This episode isn't exactly festive but instead summaries the year and opinions we have had this year. With that being said, this episode raised some important issues that we have all been dealing with but it wasn’t funny. Upstart Crow is considered a comedy and this Christmas special episode wasn't funny, it fell quite flat. It was interesting the comparisons Ben Elton (the writer) made between our time and 1603. it feels as if this is more of a political comment episode than a festive episode to get us in the Christmas spirit. Christmas seems like an afterthought, as if Elton had in mind the episode he wanted to write and at the last minute remembered this was going to be shown at Christmas time and thought it should be mentioned at the very end that it was now xmas.
Performances from Mitchell and Whelan are ok, they are nothing special and are just kept enough to keep us engaged for the thirty minutes. Performances are average but the writing is difficult to work with as the jokes aren't hitting right. As far as Xmas episodes go this isn’t the best and will be remembered more for its comments that it made. However, it is does show us that we have been through hard times before during the plague and managed to survive and gain control of our lives back eventually. It is a waiting game while following the restrictions those in power above have put in place.
Like our own times the people of Elizabethan London had a curfew of 10pm to follow, there is a tier system (North and South), Kate has kept cutting and changing her hairstyles in lockdown, Kate has been doing a lot of home baking, clapping for the corpse collectors, both characters working from home. It appears as if Kate is the positive outlook on this isolation and Will is the negative. The funniest part of this whole episode is when Will is shouting out his window for people making unnecessary journeys, something others can relate to.
Overall, this isn’t a very festive episode but it does provide a comment on the times we are living in and what they went through during the plague. The performances are alright, full of energy as there is only the two of them the entire time. It does feel a bit chaotic but maybe that is the point because these and those times are chaotic and uncertain. At the heart of this episode, it is hope that we will get out of these times but it doesn’t give you any festive cheer if that if what you were hoping for. This special episode is ok, not the best episode as it does fall a bit flat but it provides hope that these times will get better. We are hiding from our own plague which won't control our lives forever. This episode provides optimism.
