The jokes come thick and fast in this debut feature from the team behind the BBC’s Horrible Histories. Released theatrically to little fanfare last autumn, Richard Bracewell’s Bill is a delight – a joyously funny film which wears its erudition lightly. An examination of Shakespeare’s lost early years, it follows the young writer’s unwitting embroilment in a fiendish Spanish plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth. Matthew Baynton’s Shakespeare is a likeable doofus, kicked out of his boy band Mortal Coil (yes, they do shuffle off) after one too many extended lute solos. He decides to become a playwright in London, reassuring Martha Howe-Douglas’s exasperated Anne Hathaway (pictured below right, with Baynton) that “people will remember the name of Shakespeare 20 years from now.”
On arrival he meets a shifty Christopher Marlowe (Jim Howick), unsure of what to make of this wannabe writer who specialises in “bum jokes and people hit by sticks.” Marlowe’s career is on the skids, and the pair's only thespian engagement consists of their handing out leaflets while dressed as giant vegetables. Bill falls into the orbit of Ben Willbond’s oleaginous King Philip of Spain, planning to use a theatrical performance as a cover for regicide. With, er, hilarious consequences.
Monty Python and Shakespeare in Love are frequent reference points, though Bill’s anarchic spirit is miles away from the latter film’s studied smugness. Helen McCrory makes for a more convincing Elizabeth than Dame Judi, and there’s an all too brief cameo from real-life husband Damian Lewis. The six main cast members take on 40 roles between them. Especially entertaining are Simon Farnaby as a witless Earl of Croydon, and Laurence Rickard’s weary Walsingham, at one point disguising himself as a pie in order to sniff out Catholics. Funniest is the gaggle of sinister Spanish henchmen, convincing a customs officer that their torture device is actually for making gazpacho. Visually impressive despite its low budget, Bill repays repeated viewings, and has all the trappings of a cult hit. DVD extras are disappointingly modest, but do include a brief "making of" documentary.
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