"Crowd-pleasing" British movie with Ghosts stars is now streaming on the BBC

A fictional retelling of William Shakespeare's life from the team behind the hit comedy Ghosts is now streaming in the UK. Starring Mathew Baynton in the titular role, 2015's Bill hails from comedy troupe Them There, with each actor playing multiple roles in what's been described as a "crowd-pleasing treat" in an Observer review.

Directed by Richard Bracewell, Bill follows a young Bard as he trades Stratford-upon-Avon for London in search of fame only to be roped into a conspiracy to kill Queen Elizabeth I, played by late star Helen McCrory.

Also starring Ben Willbond and Laurence Rickard, who co-wrote the script, as well as Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas and Jim Howick, Bill has been recently re-added to BBC iPlayer for your streaming pleasure.

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With a cast rounded out by Homeland star Damian Lewis, Rufus Jones, Justin Edwards and Jamie Demetriou, among others, the film focuses on the years before Shakespeare, here a failed lute player looking for his calling, became a world-famous playwright.

The comedy, which has a tight runtime of a little over 90 minutes, has a positive critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where it holds a score of 90% from 21 reviews.

The Observer argued that the film works for a cross-generational audience as it "nicely [balances] its historically literate gags with broad knockabout slapstick", while the Daily Express similarly described it as "daft fun for all the family".

The List praised the film as "an entertainingly irreverent biopic, enlivened by modern references and liberated by being less obliged to educate than its televisual predecessor".

Elsewhere, One Room with a View celebrated Bill as a "quintessentially British film" featuring "the best bits from inspirations like Blackadder and Monty Python with a cheeky, imaginative approach to history and added song-and-dance".

The troupe behind CBBC's Horrible Histories, Them There recently added to the saga of Button House in a film follow-up to series Ghosts, titled The Possession of Button House. The film received positive reviews, including four stars from Digital Spy.

Bill is streaming on BBC iPlayer.

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Reporter, Digital Spy

Stefania is a freelance writer specialising in TV and movies. After graduating from City University, London, she covered LGBTQ+ news and pursued a career in entertainment journalism, with her work appearing in outlets including Little White Lies, The Skinny, Radio Times and Digital Spy. 

Her beats are horror films and period dramas, especially if fronted by queer women. She can argue why Scream is the best slasher in four languages (and a half).