Anyone familiar with BBC'S children's TV show Horrible Histories will be familiar with the format and they take it a stage further by giving it the the big screen treatment in Bill. The plot is set in Elizabethan times with Philip of Spain set to invade whilst a young Bill Shakespeare leaves Stratford to head to London to make his name and fortune. Really you don't need to know to much more, th gags come quick, and there are plenty of laughs for all. The added bonus of a couple of high profile performers in husband and wife Damian Lewis and Helen Mcrorry only add to this fun for all the family film. 8/10

The last thing that anyone connected with this project could claim is originality and nor, I would imagine, would anyone do so. The concept of spoof histories can be traced at least as far back as 1066 And All That and, for all I know, even further. We've also had The Complete Plays of Shakespeare in 87 Minutes, and latterly Horrible Histories out of which the current feature, Bill, has evolved and your reaction to it will very much depend on your appreciation and/or tolerance of the genre. I tend to agree with the opinions I've read that this is a one-joke idea attempting to flesh out a Bumper Fun Book and falling short by about ten chapters. The law of averages weighs in with roughly a pennyweight of half-decent gags but then, dear viewer, you're on your own.

There are to be peace talks between Queen Elizabeth I and King Phillip of Spain. Elizabeth wants to impress Phillip by presenting a play and the Earl of Croydon (or is it Crawley) foolishly offers his services while drunk. Fortunately, playwright William Shakespeare has just arrived in London to seek his fortune.

There is a UK TV series, based on a series of kids' books, called Horrible Histories, and this is the first cinema outing for the repertory team behind that series: as with (for instance) the Monty Python team, most of the parts are played by the same handful of actors, with cameos from Damien Lewis and Helen McCrory.

What we have is a "what might have been" story, packed with gags, most of which are a combination of silly and clever and based on anachronism (Shakespeare starts off as a member of a mandolin group called the Mortal Coils, sacked when he plays a modern guitar solo on his mandolin during a madrigal. After awkward goodbyes, one member of the group says "Well, we'll shuffle off then.") The anachronistic humour plays happily against the well realised period look of the piece – locations, costumes and sets all have a pleasingly authentic look to them.

Sitting in a (sadly) empty cinema, I giggled throughout this.