Press clippings Page 22
Preview - Upstart Crow
Ben Elton recently complained about critics being too harsh on sitcoms filmed in front of studio audiences. He may well have evidence to back his point, because in January 2017 readers of the British Comedy Guide voted his sitcom Upstart Crow the best new TV sitcom of last year.
Ian Wolf, On The Box, 11th September 2017Back, which began on C4, can be read in a few ways. Back as in, David Mitchell and Robert Webb are back, together, hurrah: the Peep Show guys reunited, and playing quasi simulacra (the sober, moral but sarky one, and the smiley shallow one). Back - as in Stephen's dad, a pub landlord and inveterate foster father, has died, and the mourners suddenly include Andrew (Webb), who was fostered for about 10 minutes back in the lost 80s, and they will replay their memories of those days with wildly differing degrees of enthusiasm and accuracy. Back - as in, you can never really go there.
It's a triumph, in that writer Simon Blackwell looks to be embarking on a grown-up exploration of memory that manages to be in parts explosively funny, too. Mitchell's character (as ever) reveals himself as too clever to pull off real pathos: Webb's (as ever) as too misguided to garner real dislike. Painfully sharp but also oddly touching, if you let it.
Euan Ferguson, The Guardian, 10th September 2017David Mitchell: Shakespeare, a classic sitcom character
David Mitchell strikes comedy gold as the put-upon Will Shakespeare in a new series of BBC comedy Upstart Crow.
James Rampton, The Daily Express, 9th September 2017TV: Upstart Crow, BBC2
Ben Elton's eloquent defence of the mainstream sitcom last month was illuminating, fascinating and persuasive. And in a way maybe it could be seen by some as an incidental pre-emptive strike against critics who might have their hatchets sharpened for the new series of Upstart Crow, Elton's popular sitcom about Shakespeare's early years starring David Mitchell. If that is the case though Elton needn't worry. The only thing he has to live with here is critics trotting out the "not-as-good-as-Blackadder" line.
Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 9th September 2017Who is the worst man on 'Peep Show' - Mark or Jez?
'Who's the worst character in Peep Show?' is a question with the power to divide nations. Unlike 'Who's the worst Friend?' (Ross) or 'Who's the most annoying person in The Big Bang Theory?' (all of them), it's a question with no obvious answer.
Joel Snape, ShortList, 8th September 2017Review: Back
It's a set-up perfectly designed to milk David Mitchell's speciality - the outraged loser - to the max and it's the scenes where Stephen is, at one point almost literally, swimming in the piss-poor job he's made of his life that give Back its comic class.
Keith Watson, Metro, 7th September 2017Back is laugh-out-loud funny - review
David Mitchell and Robert Webb are literally Back with a new dark comedy on Channel 4.
Ian Hyland, The Mirror, 7th September 2017TV review: Back
David Mitchell and Robert Webb reunite for a new sitcom and, despite the echoes of Peep Show, it looks set to be a pin-sharp comic delight.
Carol Midgley, The Times, 7th September 2017Back is a promising imposter comedy
David Mitchell could just stand there and pull a face - you know, that face - and I'd be happy.
Rachel Cooke, The New Statesman, 7th September 2017David Mitchell interview
We took the actor and comedian aside and talked to him about, among other things, his conspicuous policy of not taking cocaine.
Ralph Jones, ShortList, 7th September 2017