Quote: Aaron @ 22nd June 2016, 2:15 PM BSTAnd it was a sketch show on BBC One in the winter months, not a sitcom on BBC Two in late spring/early summer, so you're comparing apples and oranges.
The truth is that the ratings weren't great, but they were higher than many shows and the series showed enough promise to warrant a recommission. The average overnight rating across the series was 928,333.
Comedy is comedy, and neither of these were!
Episode one of Tracey Ullman was always going to get a huge boost out of curiosity value if nothing else.
She was a big star in the 1980s and gave a home to the Simpsons, probably the most iconic comedy show ever.
So yeh there was always going to be a trailing off effect, but 50% is quite some trail.
If it got under a million a showing then it's the Beeb's own fault I reckon and putting it on at 10pm a major factor in that. Compared to other sitcoms I've seen lateley UC was a resounding success. Tightly structured with flashes of good scriptwriting it knew exactly what it was and told neat little stories. My sitcom of the teenies so far.
It really shouldn't be getting under one million and the Beeb should be ashamed of their stinking failure to schedule and promote it properly. They should have had faith in this being a hit sitcom instead of their current malaise of being luke warm about studio sitcoms. They really have lost the plot over in BH haven't they. 
- Beeb comedy commissioner.
Upstart Crow is clever and funny. It is one of the best sit coms in the last decade.
This is a comedy show that I thought I'd try because the premis seemed interesting, and promising.
Added advantages seemed to be that I, like Ben Elton as a comic and as a writer.
I also enjoy David Mitchell's humour I thought enough to have a shufty at this.
I found the first episode good and reasonably funny enough to think that it might just have, something different to the usual run of the mill.
It's a little while now since I've seen any of it, and I can't remember the specific episode where it started to pale.
But I found the joke such as it was certainly wore wafer thin to transparent.
