What's more Christmassy than a feature-length Upstart Crow special starring Emma Thompson? I'll tell you: Nothing!
There's something of a warm happy glow about Upstart Crow (except when it's breaking our hearts in the last series's finale ), making it naturally feeling Christmassy anyway, so it was well suited to the Christmas treatment.
Will has bought the Queen a necklace for Christmas to present to her along with his play Eighth Night (which could do with a few more nights). However, Anne comes across the necklace, believing it to be Will's gift for her. In a genius little nod to Love Actually, Anne is devastated when on Christmas morning she is presented with her present...some of Will's poems instead!
This extended edition is 40 minutes of total joy! There's everything you could want here from David Mitchell's Christmas commuter rants, Harry Enfield's idea on the true meaning of Christmas - 'It's all about baby flipping Jesus these days! What's he got to do with it?' - to Will, Kate, Kit and Greene merrily singing 'Here we come a wassailing'.
As I previously mentioned, the nod to Love Actually culminates with a medieval version of 'Both Sides Now' played on a lute.
Emma Thompson plays Elizabeth I, who is older and more grown-up than the Blackadder II version, who was played by Miranda Richardson in an interpretation that we are familiar with.
However, there are certainly echoes of the former Queen here: 'If you do not bring a gift, Christmas custom dictates that you must bring YOUR HEAD! Be it ever such a difficult shape to wrap.'
It's a lovely cameo within a brilliant episode, and guess what? There's another big Upstart Crow special just around the corner...
Written by Rhianna Evans
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