It features the six lead performers playing several different roles each including Mathew Baynton, Martha Howe-Douglas, Ben Willbond, Simon Farnaby, Jim Howick and Laurence Rickard.

Bill is set during Shakespeare's "lost years"—the crucial period, long a mystery to scholars, covering his rise from obscurity in Stratford-upon-Avon to fame as a playwright in London.

[4][6] Their full list of roles[7] is below: It was confirmed at the 2014 Cannes film festival that Homeland star Damian Lewis would be joining the cast as Sir Richard Hawkins.

Other filming locations included Stowe School, Caroline Gardens Chapel in Peckham, London, and Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in West Sussex.

[14][15][16] Former Horrible Histories co-stars Rickard and Willbond are credited with the Bill screenplay, and are also the top-billed performers along with the four other members of the HH starring cast (Baynton, Howe-Douglas, Farnaby and Howick).

It is the second project (after Yonderland) created by the sextet as a means to continue working together as a troupe after Horrible Histories ceased production in 2012, while maintaining the familiar character-and-costume driven comedy style.

"[4] Commenting on the choice of subject, Rickard added that in fact "the joy of the "lost years" is we can tell a fun story without trampling on the facts—it gives us licence to take William Shakespeare on a truly ridiculous caper, yet end with him becoming the man the world knows.

'[22] Mark Kermode said in The Guardian, 'Nicely balancing its historically literate gags with broad knockabout slapstick, Bill is a crowd-pleasing treat that should tickle audiences young and old alike.