A Brilliant Conflict

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Ben Elton's comedies are usually "lets bash the Tories through comedy" slanted, but not this one. It's well thought out and written with the atmosphere and language of the day. In short: 100% quality comedy. The only criticism? It's too short.

This is a very smart, funny and sweet comedy about Will Shakespeare as a struggling writer, actor, business- and family man. It has clearly been written and created by people who know and love Shakespeare's work. It is certainly more enjoyable the more you know about the man and his work, but I think it can be funny regardless. Those who aren't hardcore fans of the bard may particularly appreciate the other characters' complaints about how Shakespeare expresses things in an unnecessarily complicated way ("But it's what I do!") and about how the jokes in his plays require extensive footnotes for anyone to be able to enjoy. I must also mention that I love the fact that this Will regularly goes home to Stratford to spend time with his family - and perform the tasks on his wife's list of "dad jobs". Anne Shakespeare here is hardly Will's intellectual equal but she is kind and caring and thankfully not the shrew that misogynist academics have been trying to make her out as for the past few centuries. Feminist Germaine Greer believes Anne was the rock on which Shakespeare relied throughout his life, and I think this is how "Upstart crow" portrays her. As a non-British Shakespeare buff, I sense that there are some jokes about contemporary life in Britain that go over my head, though I still enjoy things like the jokes about the British rail and the annoyingly small number of lavatories for women in theatres. The actor who plays Will Kempe seemed oddly familiar but thanks to the late IMDb boards I was able to find out that this is because he is doing an impression of Ricky Gervais, whose career, one could argue, has some similarities to Kempe's.The first couple of episodes are in my opinion the weakest of the first season, so please stick with it! Can't wait for season 2.

This is a genuinely funny show that actually makes me laugh out loud - quite a rare thing for comedies these days which tend to be more low- key. It has a great cast and they look as though they're really enjoying themselves, which is infectious. I'm no Shakespeare buff, so I expect some of the references pass me by, but I enjoy the ones I do get and appreciated learning something about the sonnets in episode 4.For those complaining about 'canned laughter', the series was recorded in front of a live studio audience and it's them you can hear. You may think they're laughing at things you don't find funny, but that's a different issue.I'm sorry there's only one more episode to go and really hope the BBC commissions a second series.

You have to be educated enough to understand Shakespeare to get a lot of the jokes. If you are not I understand why you would turn it off in thirty seconds. But this does not make it less worthy as there are plenty of people smart enough to get the bard and do, and love it. This is not a programme who people who watch BGT would enjoy, it presumes you are clever which we need more of. The mass stupefaction to appeal to the masses is a race to the bottom. Brilliant we need more of this. BBC be brave. You have to be educated enough to understand Shakespeare to get a lot of the jokes. If you are not I understand why you would turn it off in thirty seconds. But this does not make it less worthy as there are plenty of people smart enough to get the bard and do, and love it. This is not a programme who people who watch BGT would enjoy, it presumes you are clever which we need more of. The mass stupefaction to appeal to the masses is a race to the bottom. Brilliant we need more of this. BBC be brave.