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 as a semi-regular character in the award-winning Wolfblood, 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 filiming Vera with Brenda Blethyn.

His film credits include The Tournament with Robert Carlyle, In Our Name with Joanne Froggatt and United, the story of the Munich air disaster, with Jack O'Connell and David Tennant.

Bill is also the singer / songwriter with the  band The Poor Relations and  can be heard on iTunes.