Bill was born and bred in the North-East town of Middlesbrough, close to the North Yorkshire border, and trained at the Guildford drama school in the early Eighties. Amongst his many Theatre credits are Mickey in the West End production of Blood Brothers, alongside Stephanie Lawrence, Tony Harrison's Trackers at the Royal National Theatre, Pastoral at the Soho Theatre and, most recently, Hobson's Choice at Regents Park Theatre directed by Nadia Fall. Bill has been seen on television many times, most recently in Vera with Brenda Blethyn, the hugely popular drama Broadchurch with Olivia Colman and in the multi award-winning Downton Abbey opposite Phyllis Logan - as well as starring in Alan Bleasdale's Monicled Mutineer with Paul McGann and Hallmark's Blackbeard with Stacy Keach and Jessica Chastain and has recently finished filming Scratch, part of the Moving On series for the BBC. His film credits include The Tournament with Robert Carlyle, In Our Name with Joanne Froggatt, United, the story of the Munich air disaster, with Jack O'Connell and David Tennant, Harrigan with Stephen Tompkinson and Extremis with David O'Hara.