"Upstart Crow" - A 3rd Groat's Worth of Wit (II) Quiz | Television

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Will is in the middle of writing a new play set in Venice about a merchant, but is seeking a big important issue to include. At the time, riots are taking place in London; what are these riots over?

Answer: Immigrants

Kate attends a counter-protest holding a sign saying "Let Them Stay" in support of the French and Dutch refugees escaping persecution in Europe. Will comments that anti-European sentiment is getting worse, and states a belief that, if such an influx were to happen in the future, government would be prepared for it.

This episode was broadcast in September 2018, during the UK's Brexit crisis.

2. In Will's Venitian merchant play, he includes a moneylender character. Will decides to have the character serve as the basis of the big important issue, by being a member of a discriminated grouping. What group does Will plan to make the moneylender a part of?

Answer: Dutch

Will originally plans to make the moneylender a pleasant chap called Timothy. However, he feels the character needs an edge, and decides to use the current social problems as the basis for this. He discounts Bottom's suggestion that the character be a ginge, on account of the Queen also being one, while even he is unable to come up with the idea of a sympathetic Frenchman.

He therefore elects to call the character Lars, a tall, blond strapping Dutchman.

3. When the actor Wolf Hall auditions for Will and Burbage, he gives excerpts of his performances as various people called Thomas. Which Thomas does he not use?

Answer: Thomas Cranmer

Ben Elton based the characterisation of the actor Wolf Hall on Sir Mark Rylance, who is a noted proponent of the theory that Shakespeare was not the author of his plays. The episode features Robert Greene planting this notion into the mind of the actor Wolf Hall, who subsequently accuses Will of being a front for a posh boy author.

The actor Wolf Hall is played by the comedian and actor Ben Miller.

4. Susanna gets her first job as an assistant, but where does she work?

Answer: The local dame school

Susanna is employed at the school to help with reading and writing. During her time in this role, she witnesses the way a struggling child is treated by other pupils, and wants to make them see that the victim of their name calling is in fact just like them. She uses a passage of her father's own writing to demonstrate this, having the boy recite it to the class.

5. When devising a benefit night to help the refugees, Burbage and Condell reminisce about their touring days, when the pair would perform a visual gag. From this, they take the name for their planned benefit show, but what is it?

Answer: Inflated Pig's Bladder Day

Despite the story that Burbage and Condell relate involving a red nose, Will opts to name the benefit "Inflated Pig's Bladder Day". During the show, Will and Kate comment on the juxtaposition of the harsh documentary reality alongside the bum-kicking gags. Will goes on to suggest that future ages will find a way around this awkwardness.

6. When John Shakespeare is made Master of the Watch, he is presented with his sword by whom?

Answer: Dogberry

Sergeant Dogberry claims to have "slain a thousand Turks in a single day and faced down the hordes of Muscovy", which impresses Will's son Hamnet, but fails to convince Anne. Hamnet is greatly inspired by his father's latest play, "Henry V", and seeks to become a soldier in the Queen's army. Dogberry encourages this, and is keen to welcome the lad as a recruit, which does not impress Hamnet's mother. Sergeant Dogberry is portrayed by Adrian Edmondson, a long-time collaborator with Ben Elton.

7. Upon Will's return to Stratford to escape the stink of London, he is accompanied by his friends, his colleagues and Bottom. On this occasion, how does he introduce Kit?

Answer: The Artist Formerly Known as Marlowe

Marlowe is in hiding having faked his own death, and is living under the protection of Will, taking the opportunity to quaff and gorge on Will's ale and pie while he supposedly painstakingly attempts to craft a new identity. The extended period of Marlowe's presence in Will's household leads to friction between Kit and Kate, and they have resorted to exchanging constant barbs with each other.

8. Susanna is to attend a masked ball at the church hall, at which she wishes to 'get with' a lush boy named Claude. However, she believes she will be too shy to ask him. What plan does Will devise to fulfil her wish?

Answer: Kate masquerades as Susanna

At Sir Thomas Livesey's masked ball, Claude is seen chatting to Margaret, overseen by Don John, before Kate approaches Claude as part of Will's plan. The subsequent happenings lead to the basis of Will's plot for his next romantic comedy, "Much Ado About Nothing". Don John, Margaret and Claudio are all characters from "Much Ado About Nothing".

9. What does Will believe is the reason for Marlowe and Kate's constant sniping at each other?

Answer: Kate and Marlowe secretly love each other

The Shakespeare family is sick of the non-stop bickering, and Anne asks Will to do something about it. Will subsequently deliberately has both Marlowe and Kate separately overhear him tell Bottom that each is in love with the other. When the would-be lovers broach the subject later, they discover their feelings are in fact as they appear on the surface, and that Will's 'deep understanding of human nature' has let him down.

10. Having come up with the plot of his new romantic comedy, Will is in need of a title, which he believes Anne has struck upon. What does he decide it should be?

Answer: A Load of Convoluted Old Bolingbrokes

The conversation between Will and Anne is one of the fireside chats that end almost every episode of "Upstart Crow", and often include comments made by Anne that the audience knows turn out to come true. After describing the plot as 'a load of convoluted old bolingbrokes', she also adds that it is 'much ado about nothing'. Will however favours the former as a title.

Source: Author Red_John

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor guitargoddess before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

"Upstart Crow" - A 3rd Groat's Worth of Wit (II) Quiz

The third series of "Upstart Crow" sees the further adventures of Will Shakespeare, as told by Ben Elton. How closely have you been following what the Bard has been up to?

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>