Bill

Dir: Richard Bracewell

2015

****

I’m a bit old for the television show Horrible Histories but I had always been curious about the show as it would often win comedy awards in adult categories. I do know Simon Farnaby however, so I watched Bill – the Horrible Histories movie - because of him, knowing the sort of thing to expect. I enjoyed it a lot. There were a few kids TV shows like it when I was young that I can think of but none quite as funny or grown up. I remember as a child being talked down to by television, even though very little went above me, and I know I’m not alone in feeling this. I’d watch all the popular TV shows but I would also watch Monty Python and the Goodies and old re-runs of silly 70s comedies. I’m guessing Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond had a similar experience growing up and the result is Horrible Histories, Yonderland and now Bill. The Bill of the title is of course William Shakespeare. Shakespeare is an integral part of growing up in the UK as you have to read and study at least two of his works before you sit your final exams and many a film adaptation or TV version exists. You have to watch them all, it’s a sort of unwritten law. If you’re lucky you get to read Macbeth at school, if you’re unlucky – like me – you get Twelfth Night or one of the other ‘comedies’ that see a girl dressed as a boy and a fool get his comeuppance. I personally think there is a lot to the theory that the work of Shakespeare as we know it is actually the works of two different writers but that is another matter. The truth is, school kills Shakespeare for most British kids, as it is over analysed, dissected and rammed down our throats at a young age. Many only appreciate Shakespeare when they go back and read it as adults, generally down to a realisation that they’ve reached a certain age and are embarrassed to admit they’ve read very few of the classic novels that they read should have read by now. Bill makes Shakespeare fun for kids, which is great for a bit of after school relief, but I’m not sure it will help them pass any exams. That’s fine though, kids need a bit of silly, and Bill is certainly that. However, it doesn’t rest on the same jokes you’d expect to find in kids shows/films. I think it was Akira Kurosawa who said that there are only seven stories and that every story, film, or whatever can be traced back to one of them. In the case of kids themes, I think there are only two, maybe three. Growing up in the late 70s and early 80s, most British made kids television saw different programs with different characters and TV personalities go through the same plot-lines, tell the same jokes and rip off the same slap-stick skits from the Three Stooges. The kids these days don’t know how lucky they are to have programs like Horrible Histories or films like Bill. That said, it is all just a sugar-free version of Monty Python. I like it and enjoyed it but I’m not sure how less Pythonesque it could be. To be honest though, that didn’t bother me at all, fair play to them, their jokes were their own and they came thick and fast. They’re all brilliant writers and brilliant performers. As they put it themselves, Bill is "a hundred different brands of idiocy, really... We staunchly defends the idiocy." And I for one really support that when it comes to kids TV/film. As for the historical element, I think the team said it well when they pointed out that "We're playing with history, just as Shakespeare did, for the entertainment of the audience." It’s great fun, the sort of thing I want my kids to watch and the sort of thing I’d enjoy watching with them.