Upstart Crow was news to me as well. Caught the Christmas special and... I'm not quite sure about it yet. It's nice to see Elton back in this period and doing something that talks to Shakespeare even more directly than the first Blackadder did (I know that wasn't his, but it was very much Shakespeare fic...), but something about it didn't quite sit. I'll have to watch some more regular episodes and see. Nice to see Mark Heap on villainous form though.