The long awaited sitcom Upstart Crow starring David Mitchell will begin on Friday 6th May.

The sitcom, commissioned as part of the BBC’s celebrations surrounding the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, marks Ben Elton’s return to historical sitcom 25 years after the final series of Blackadder, and alongside director Ben Kellett (Man to Man with Dean Learner), he’s gathered quite an impressive cast together.

The aforementioned David Mitchell of Peep Show fame portrays the legendary playwright, whilst Harry Enfield and Paula Wilcox play his parents. Also along for the ride are Spaced and Big Train star Mark Heap as bitter rival Sir Robert Greene, Trollied‘s Dominic Coleman as Kempleton and Liza Tarbuck as Anne Hathaway. No, not that one.

Most excitingly for us, and the reason we’re telling you about this, is the presence of Gemma Whelan and Tim Downie as Kate and Marlowe respectively. The TVO twosome are in an unspecified number of episodes, and at present, we’re not sure exactly when Tim will make an appearance, but you can see a shot of Gemma looking glamorous, Elizabethan style, above.

The six part run airs on BBC Two every Friday from 6th May at 10pm. We’ll aim to bring you more news asap… and you can see a handful of bonus images below.