Three years in and the celebrity historical is a non-negotiable for each new series of Doctor Who. Whilst William Shakespeare’s appearance doesn’t quite reach the heights of Dickens, it certainly trumps Queen Victoria, it being especially funny when The Doctor casually uses his full name.

The trio of witches are a good match for this era, Gareth Roberts would have had to work harder to bring them into a contemporary setting. They efficiently help him tap in and out of an understood threat within 45 minutes.

The sexual energy in this production is something else. Wiggins and Lilith, Lilith and the script inspector, Martha and Shakespeare, Shakespeare and the wench, Martha pining after The Doctor… I’m sure there’s more! It fuels the show with a cheeky energy.

It’s been often said but I think Russell pushed Martha’s pining too far. Two episodes into her run, you’d hope The Doctor would stop mentioning Rose by now, but it’s one of the series’s returning themes. I understand plot wise why he is doing it, after “falling in love”, to be true to the character he can’t just forget her, but I think The Runaway Bride / Smith and Jones covered this base sufficiently.

It’s a fun, stylish, well plotted story. The “power of words” ending would usually not be enough to go on but Roberts puts in decent groundwork with the Carrionites’ use of “words as magic” - they get away with it.

Queen Elizabeth chasing The Doctor in an outrage is a particularly fine way of signing things off - even without a payoff yet planned!