Wild Laughter in the Throat of Death

Episode aired Sep 5, 2018
TV-14
29m

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

131

YOUR RATING

Jocelyn Jee Esien, David Mitchell, Rob Rouse, and Gemma Whelan in Upstart Crow (2016)

Comedy History

After the success of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' Will is urged to write another comedy and is annoyed when his friends find his new project 'Hamlet' to be hilarious. He is also angered when ... Read allAfter the success of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' Will is urged to write another comedy and is annoyed when his friends find his new project 'Hamlet' to be hilarious. He is also angered when Greene excludes him from a proposed literary salon but this proves to be a cover for killi... Read allAfter the success of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' Will is urged to write another comedy and is annoyed when his friends find his new project 'Hamlet' to be hilarious. He is also angered when Greene excludes him from a proposed literary salon but this proves to be a cover for killing Kit. To save him Will agrees to help him feign his death, using the plot of 'Hamlet' wh... Read all

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

131

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Trivia
The title is taken from 'Love's Labour's Lost', Act 5, Scene2.

Quotes
Will Shakespeare: [aside] And so do I continue my private task of sowing confusion about what I actually wrote and what people merely think I did until the day dawns when people in their ignorance and vanity will attribute any archaic sounding truism to me in the certitude that it might easily have been me and if it wasn't no one will know the diff. Thus will I eventually get credit for inventing the entire English language. So shove that up your Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer!

Connections
References The Lion King (1994)

User reviews1

Review

Featured review

7/10

Wild Laughter in the Throat of Death

The success of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' means that Queen Elizabeth has bestowed a Coat of Arms on Will's dad. Will is now the son of a gentleman and there is now a demand for a new comedy.

His friends suggest the play Will has been working on for years, 'Hamlet' is riotous but Will insists it remains as a tragedy. It is his daughter Susanna who raises the possibility of a plot for a new romantic comedy.

Robert Greene is incensed that Will's ascendancy continues. He wishes to sow the seeds that disputes Will's authorship of his plays. Green plans a year long retreat of writers where Kit is invited and then killed.

Meanwhile Kit senses that the life of a spy is not an easy one and people are out to kill him. Will plans to help him out by faking his own death.

Another enjoyable episode, the series now sets a high standard. The deconstruction of Hamlet as a comedy was fun.