Bill: the story behind the early life of Shakespeare

obviously Horrible Histories has now sort of been and gone for you and yonder land is now incredibly successful had two series hopefully we came back again who knows do we know yes let us hope it means yes and and so bill this obvious here no actually you mean you shot bill at the start of last year so at that point I don't know how do you made John London I can't remember knowledge is yeah so it was it was written by Ben and Larry and how do you work as I said writing Bureau in terms of I mean did you go off separately and do different things he together in the same room no we we fight we we wrestle and then yeah we have sort of mind rustles and then mind hugs no we we spend a lot of time working on the story and that is key you have to work you have to figure out your story and that takes longer than you think I was being to another writer about two weeks ago and he said yeah it takes about a year to cut to get your story right and he's absolutely right I think we took you know we sort of batter off pretty quickly but then came back and a long time spending all that time looking at the story and and really sort of focusing on the plot and everything else doesn't mean that when you actually get to doing the script that was my first draft we did in like three weeks in an office in Croydon it was exactly queer distant between Ben's house and mine so it's it was practically the best place to write it but the first day we were writing it I got a call from Ben on the train home going what have you done on the telly turn on the telly right and Roy Roy burns to ground I thought I'd left the toaster on I hadn't it was much more serious than that so you're actually you've rented space you're there you're in an office yeah properly working away yeah so you taking it very seriously for the start and you've got a lot of different versions of script kind of from you saying what version one yeah I think first drafts are always they are sort of messy creation because you're just getting all your ideas out there I think our first draft was about 160 pages which is far too long yeah future it wouldn't make too lovely film 2 to 5 to very long boring yeah and then we had some brilliant feedback from BBC they very kindly said yeah it's it's a it's a little bit long and then they helped us sort sort the story out we had like eight writers characters in it yeah and they basically went there's a lot of writers in there and I don't know if you can think of the most the least cinematic action then an actor can do it's probably Brighton Singh so we can yeah so when you were doing it we you were thinking of one central character for all six of you and then the other ones comes in came separate I mean we did you know who was going to do well to start all of that evolved over the next few well the next draft really because it was incredibly hard to make sure that we all had a lead character but then could play incidental characters as well early on there are a few of the first two lines we wrote of Croydon yeah without even sort of speaking to each other we went well presumably that's that's Island yeah I thought it would have I thought it was I thought it was sausage guy first when tried in the whenever I think I always think of you my face just peering us awesome sausage sausage going he's his own film what's the much kind of moving around around the characters or was it pretty much as you thought it would be when you started they moved around quite a bit some and some there were some well I think we never knew which of the goons the kind of the assassins we were never certain initially on who was gonna play those and for a while what might have been the early drafts were in my head I was sort of thinking that Jim might be low pay and I might be Gabrielle and it's weird now now we sort of seen it a thousand times you know any opportunity to wear a frock you always I mean buddy when Anna and Hathaway came I had to fight for that so what points a few guys are three of you actually kind of see the script you did you see it when it was all finished or what point did you come in and and you get to comment on the characters and how does it work in that sense we came in I think I'm not sure what draft it was but we were invited to a read-through so we kind of knew that Ben and Larry were working on a script and we came together in a pub in Deptford family and it felt it just felt amazing we just we read the script and we were laughing and and all the characters seemed to suit us it seemed like natural casting for all of us and almost like we wrote it with you in mind it just felt great and yeah we had a really nice afternoon I mean it's it's the room for you to kind of input and improvise or it's a script pretty solid and that way in this because because the guys every time we did a draft I think we did three table reads in all and each time we did a draft we then took notes from them so kind of their input as was also put into the script it was probably maybe a little less improvisation than we've done in previous things but still particularly watching at that time I was really aware of the moments where our that that's their messing around that's their messing around you know it's still quite a lot yeah mostly the story again because the story's so important it's sort of yeah I suddenly thought of a different point that was better than the point I was gonna make Simon's doing a TED talk about no it was about the he characters for us well singing is it Shakespeare just remembering that first reading and actually froze up for me anyway Croydon and Brian were pretty much they're like nailed on but they're incidental characters it's quite much easier to make funny and I think Matt had the most to say about Shakespeare because it's so hard to get a leading role right because it's very tempting to make him the sort of straight man and have all your of the characters spin off him but watching that again actually it's great how funny Shakespeare is and Marlowe actually because there's you know sort of with and those sort of the heart of him they all it's just really nice that they're they're all really funny - well thank you I'm gonna go was it was it always a given that it would be a period piece I mean it was a do you know why from the start it's gonna be Shakespeare how did that kind of come about yeah it was it was rich Bracewell our director who when we started talking about a film it was actually in the first conversation I had with him he said what about Shakespeare because it's a great place to start and he was absolutely right because I was a little bit worried because of Shakespearean love and how an incredible script and film that is and you're tackling you know the Bard so you've got a you know approach it with caution well early on we wanted to make a film that was half as good as Shakespeare in love and I think it is half as good it's it's about as powerful but also I mean periods right period pieces are always notoriously expensive yeah and obviously a lot of location work we brought all their own costumes it was a couple of people really early on sort of in the film finance world who went to and before you know pitching the idea trying to tell them about the film in the first sentences right well it's so it's set in 1593 and they go right that's ten million pounds carry on and then we talk tell the story in the film and then obviously so and we said about a gag or a character or a costume they were kind of adding money in their head and then we kind of go but we'd like to try and do it for sort of under four and it credit to you know the the BBC and rich our directors have basically BBC Films who kind of put their heads together and go I think there is a way of achieving that but they were yeah I mean there's no there's no question it is hard because you have to recreate Elizabethan England so so we so a lot of that a lot of London that you see in the film is shot in the grounds of a Bolton cast of a ruined castle and Marshall they talk about this look at the glamour of shooting films but this was up in Yorkshire he was breathing but I with all of the wool and everything the coarser everything all the layers I had I was absolutely freezing every day with you it was pretty grim I mean it's lovely I mean the attention to detail is amazing I mean some was in Peckham some was in Yorkshire but it really I mean it was that very important kind of going in there wasn't just some sort of comedy film wait upon a few outfits I mean you actually go for that to authenticity we'd always sort of tried to in everything we've done we tried to do something there's a backbone there which the comedy sort of stacking and messing around in front of with horrible history that was easy because it was and in yonder lamb we tried to create something which felt like a a genuine fantasy world if that's the thing so not a throwaway people are being silly but the back you sort of buying the world and we said really early on with this that we wanted you however ridiculous the thing that we are doing is you want to believe that the world is happening in is is Elizabeth and then Simon Scullion who was a production designer just found a number of ingenious ways of delivering they're relatively cheap like you know building London inside a castle because if you're inside a castle walls they no matter where you put the camera you don't shoot off because it's a giant wall around you and you know bombed out Abbey in London which basement and things like that so it's just kept finding ingenious solutions to it I mean you mentioned about the director Richard brace well a lot of directors don't have their writer on set every day and in a sense you know they've got not just the writers on set but also you are you know an ensemble in your own right who are used to work with each other yeah I mean from a director's point of view do you know how he felt about that he hated us very M he's a really nice very patient manner thankfully so he is sort of pretty cool thing yeah I mean to be honest we're so busy you know you've just got to just gotta get on with it so you know it wasn't not really tempting to try and interfere or time I mean did you have to kind of have those boundaries yeah but he had three very burly security guards yeah I mean you know it's it's it is I think as with everything every sort of artistic roses it's it's just keeping that dialogue going so you you are just discussing I mean yeah I wouldn't be so cheeky to discuss shots with rich you know I'm not gonna do that is that not cool it's not cool but yeah it's a you know it is you've got a key you gotta keep talking and he want in you know he wanted they encouraged that so it was fine he knew what he's getting into I mean it didn't go to a brownie but yeah okay I'm gonna open it up I know that there were gonna be people who will want to ask you questions but just as I sort of loosen up before we go to the audience I want you all just to individual tell me which character you most enjoy playing out of the multitude he played on screen today starting with band well it has to be king philip ii of spain i just i don't know the first day I walked on set I win a lovely costume that was made for me so it was really comfortable I just thought yeah it's good to be the king it was great sausage guy again I just put a lot of work into it and put a lot of research into it and just think that's my finest work I've ever done no Croydon I say Croydon well both Ryan as well as good fun to do stupid Spanish voices don't you mean when it comes to a villain you've pretty much gone to the market yeah I think it's my sort of beady eyes and just I'm a horrible person that's two of the reasons no yeah no I enjoy it's a lot of fun playing a villain because you can I don't know you just the you they're villains are quite so playful generally and so both in comedies they are in comedies in real life let's not get into that that's really what my favorite character was was Christopher Marlowe I think just knowing the story he had a head like the light and shade but I really enjoyed playing the man on the toilet because and some of you were born some of you might not remember blankety-blank one afternoon I got the sound guy to find the theme tube for Frankie to play and he played it on his his speakers in one of the tapes because I knew that we had to get on camera for it to work so rather cheaply I got him to play blankety blank and just waved you can hear on the background is my voice what what because I'm behind you've been talking about doing that gag for ages it's coming up to that day and then on that day was raised was was everyone is up against it really up to the wire Reena come on come on we got a move on we gotta go we gotta move on I'm gonna do the joke well I love to play and I love that the relationship that I had with Matt but you know all the way through and but I have to say the body clicked it was a big favorite I miss being a person so bad I'm sure for a future role really early on in the scripts when we were talking with the various studios I said we can whatever gets cut anything can get lost I'm open to negotiation on absolutely everything apart from the line in your bum it stays in and I get to say it so like low pay I usually enjoyed it even though really early on I made the mistake I was gonna I'm gonna play with these George after now and I'm week seven we were going on court that was a mistake yeah he's it's so much fun to play I liked Matt did a little ad-lib which is on the in the film and it's the is the customs man and the Spanish arrived on the beach and he did this really bleak hip now his sons dying which is so horrible I love James I have lady pods I was saying him front of Arthur and I can vouch to the fact that she does like that gonna have one of my own no I did well I mean they get with that I had the knife I love the knife thing many kids we on that day we seem to have a bit of time so we shot that loads of times and each time we would come up with something different and I think it made it into the show yeah the show we don't do this every night Simon you know stick it in the chair it did make it in I've really enjoyed the scene where Ben gets oranges chapter head because I'm sure other people did for different reasons I really know because I love that that little shot where it reveals the Machine which is clearly there that someone is made to throw more inches at the king is such a ridiculous idea though and you know when they when we shot that the I kept saying how are you gonna shoot oranges at me exactly because we dreamt this up and they said well we're just get tennis ball machine it went all right you know how fast those going to be fine we're just doing with like soft balls and then they fired these things at me that with a little sponge sponge sort of tennis balls I mean they were they hurt it's like when you go paintballing that was a very busy set that day all right there were an awful lot of people there who suddenly decided that was very important for the production it was well observed I love the montage scene where they're writing yeah we're very pleased to be able to be able to get Dueling Banjos from deliverance reported on lutes which is my personal favorite event for maximizers have one where Croydon is in bed because this is the help you say how could this get any better and I said well you could be lying back anyway oh yeah I could have improved I always wanted to do something about the Civil War I think but I never really played a character from the Civil War in Horrible Histories I'd like to see you do samuel peeps my Parmesan cheese I think cavemen but speaking like this would be would be cool it's kind of been done yeah I wouldn't do Bob Hale because for hours and makeup do like stupid deaths but like a serious film yeah you're letting Ingmar Bergman like a really serious film then maybe with one joke at the end yeah you could you could call it Judgment Day and the offerings raise I'm sure I can do that I don't know it's just when you have a villain who's a silly as villain you need to surround him with at least Three Stooges Stooges who are quite different to him so he was quite I think as well the Vito we liked about that all of the others even though the other two you know one and lo peor idiots that they wanted to be doing the job and a likely idea of doing something you know Shakespearean time you would have men playing women because women weren't allowed in the theatre we liked the idea of having a man who would thank woman because that's what he wanted to do and realize that the world that that brought him into in terms of the theatre was far preferable to the killing fate of people and so it just kept put it took more heart into the film there was there was quite a lot obvious I mean you know you shoot a feature and you had so much material that was I mean the very very first cut of the film was about two and a half hours and that one's an hour or less so there was a lot of stuff and the most of it on the whole you look at it and you go that's not right that's not right there are a few moments was that there was one that we tried really early on when you first meet Croydon in the carriage there was a scene where he gets out and Ian helps him out the carriage and he ends up getting his head trodden on getting his head shot into a horse horse manure in the street and we tried very it was a really nice character moment and it sort of completely set up Croydon in Ian's relationship slightly earlier in the film and we tried cutting that about quite different way to go and I just never quite words cause I think he's a lot of that there's a lot of things where you go on paper that's brilliant and then you shoot it and you see it and you go maybe not the whole script was quite really quite tight by the time we got to shoot it so there's no scenes missing from the from the film but a lot of the scenes I chopped into quite a lot there's the scene when we the the grubby men that called the grubby men in the script attack or want to rob and in the alleyway and that was a hole there was quite a long scene of them getting confused and tripping over their lines which I really loved but for time we had to really chop into that so I'd love one day for everyone to see that as a standalone probably being Marlo's ghost we really wanted early on it was actually off we were trying to work out how the best way of doing it and it was at one of our ad to one of our assistant directing team who hit upon an idea which I and technique I've been in love with the years I'm a bit of a nerd about special effects and it's a Victorian stage thickness Pepper's Ghost so the that's not a special effect the shooting of that ghost is all onset using the reflection against glass which places him exactly in the scene with with Matt which meant we could shoot both them together we could turn the camera off of them yeah opposite Matt but mirrored yes and performing entirely - so if you say Matt's in front of me looking this way I was looking that way so my reflection is looking at Matt looking at bill and I was actually performing into a black just a black curtain to darkness mm-hmm just don't worry I've heard this 10 times and I still don't understand there's a couple of people from effects houses who looked at it and when how did you do that it's a because it's an in-camera special effect right yeah I was very lucky because I got my dress made for me by our brilliant casting Department so yeah but I have to say it's quite uncomfortable after a while because it was all corset it but I mean it looks it looks lovely Croydon for me again it was made for me but I really complained all the time until they made it really really comfortable no it was great it was good lovely and it feels sort of quite you know and obviously you look just really stylish yeah I well obviously for me it was it was Philip again because when you have a costume made for you there's nothing better because they it's it's you know it's a tailored outfit and I got to make it a little bit tight around the waist just to make sure I stayed stayed it stayed slim for oranges shoot mine was probably Marla for the same reasons but also I really like the color scheme I like T in this outfit when it was they first showed it to me cuz it would just been made and it was beautiful and then I said I win the script I sort of liked the idea that he hadn't bought anything for 15 years and so could it be unfashionable too tight and covered in mud so then they took this outfit they took it into the point I could barely get into it and they kicked it around the car bar and so I think my favourite would then would have to be Walsingham because I just said he's he thinks he's Batman and they went we've got it and they made a completely leather Tudor outfit my favorite song with Boudicca I think not wrong wrong Cleopatra Jim mine was probably the Vikings yeah I think the Vikings the pro I enjoyed the rock one and the Simon Garfunkel one yeah Jim you're only allowed one sorry alright the rock one okay yeah let me straight yeah it was cool I had a junket that was good mine was song yet was Marcus Licinius Crassus no rich man could ever surpass us that fulfilled my ambition to be a rap artist which I know I I think I mean I think it would have to be because we got four goes at it and it was great fun really great fun great fun desert the alcohol I really enjoyed doing the other Viking song because I just they said we'll just mess around in the background would be a hippie and I had a lovely morning you

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Views: 22,543

Rating: 4.9788361 out of 5

Keywords: Ben Willbond, Laurence Rickard, Simon Farnaby, Jim Howick and Martha Howe-Douglas, Bill, funday, bfi, bill, preview, film, British Film Institute (Publisher), british film institute, films, movie, movies

Id: PNZaEny_2QU

Length: 28min 0sec (1680 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 28 2015