Laurence Rickard

Intro

Laurence Rickard is an English comedy writer and actor associated with Horrible Histories, Yonderland, Bill and Ghosts. His work frequently combines writing with performance, and much of it has grown through a continuing partnership with Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick and Ben Willbond. In Ghosts he plays two very different inhabitants of Button House: Robin and Humphrey's head. That combination makes him especially recognizable as a character performer, while his writing work places him among the people responsible for the show's larger comic world.

Career snapshot

Rickard described his early ambitions in a 2023 interview with The Tab. He wrote a first sitcom script as a teenager and later studied film, television and drama at university. His account presents a gradual route into professional comedy rather than an immediate breakthrough. He also described enjoying the different demands of writing and acting: the concentrated work of developing material at a desk and the more social process of performing with colleagues. That movement between solitary preparation and collaboration became a recurring feature of his career.

The entry point

Horrible Histories was a crucial meeting point for the group with whom Rickard would make later projects. Their shared interest in playing multiple characters carried into Yonderland, the fantasy comedy that ran on Sky from 2013 to 2016. In a British Comedy Guide interview, Rickard explained that the team wanted to work together again and was drawn to a world containing puppets. The series gave him roles including Scribe Elder Ho-Tan and Wizard Bradley. Its humor depended on physical performance, voices and the interaction between human actors and puppet characters.

Screen identity and style

Rickard's discussion of Yonderland also makes clear how much practical work supported its apparent silliness. Acting with puppets meant accommodating puppeteers and the physical limits of what could be achieved on set. He praised the performers responsible for those characters and the creative possibilities of tangible effects. That emphasis on collaboration offers a useful way to understand his screen work: a comic character may appear effortlessly strange, but the performance is built from decisions about timing, movement and the other people sharing the scene.

Collaborations and patterns

Ghosts brought the ensemble into a different structure, with dead characters from different historical periods sharing a house with its living residents. Rickard's Robin and Humphrey's head are separately credited in the BBC Programme Index. Playing both requires distinct characterization even though the roles belong to the same continuing story. The team's film Bill had already taken their multi-character approach into a feature-length comedy about Shakespeare. Later, Rickard and Ben Willbond created and appeared in We Are Not Alone, which the Royal Television Society discussed with them at an event chaired by fellow Ghosts performer Lolly Adefope.

Era reflection

The original Ghosts television series concluded in 2023, but the group returned to the material for Ghosts: The Possession of Button House. In an October 2026 Chortle interview, Rickard discussed the challenge of making a film that offered more than an extended television episode while retaining the house and its mismatched inhabitants. He also discussed writing and appearing in Amandaland. These later projects continue the relationship between his work as a performer and his involvement in deciding how a story is structured and what new situations its characters can sustain.

Legacy and rediscovery

Rickard's career is therefore best approached through the connection between individual character work and sustained ensemble collaboration. The photographs here show him at MCM Comic Con London on October 24, 2025, in two separate exposures taken by David Maynard. One is a closer view and the other shows him seated with his hands together. They document the same public appearance rather than different productions or periods. The range of the career lies in the credited performances and writing partnerships; the gallery preserves a specific encounter with the audience that follows those projects.

Selected screen roles

• Horrible Histories: Various roles; writer — from 2009
• Yonderland: Various roles; co-creator — 2013-2016
• Bill: Writer and performer — 2015
• Ghosts: Robin / Humphrey's head; co-creator — 2019-2023
• We Are Not Alone: Co-creator and performer — 2022

A career in pictures

Two distinct photographs document the same October 2025 MCM Comic Con London appearance.

MCM Comic Con London, closer view (2025)

Convention appearance

Laurence Rickard on October 24, 2025; David Maynard, exposure at 12:58.

MCM Comic Con London, seated (2025)

Convention appearance

A separate exposure from the same October 24, 2025 appearance; David Maynard, photographed at 12:39.

Rewatch notes

• He plays both Robin and Humphrey's head in Ghosts.
• He co-created We Are Not Alone with Ben Willbond.