50 Fun Facts About Rowan Atkinson

Which subject did Rowan Atkinson study at Newcastle University and Oxford before he turned to comedy full time?

Electrical engineering earned him a degree at Newcastle and a master's at The Queen's College, Oxford. His thesis looked at self-tuning control.

Which future British prime minister went to the Durham Chorister School at the same time as Rowan Atkinson?

Tony Blair was a fellow pupil at the cathedral prep school, which the Atkinson brothers attended while growing up in nearby Consett. Their father was a farmer and company director.

Which famous painting does Mr. Bean ruin with a sneeze and an inky handkerchief in the 1997 film Bean?

Whistler's Mother ends up so badly damaged that Bean secretly swaps it for a poster coated in egg white and nail varnish. The fake fools everyone at the unveiling.

In which African country was Rowan Atkinson on holiday in 2001 when the pilot of his private plane fainted?

Kenya was the setting: Atkinson kept the Cessna flying and helped bring the pilot round, and the pilot recovered enough to land at Wilson Airport in Nairobi.

Which future Hollywood star, then aged ten, appeared with Rowan Atkinson in the 1984 West End comedy The Nerd?

Christian Bale was still a child actor when he shared the London stage with Atkinson. His film breakthrough in Empire of the Sun came three years later.

Which large vehicles has Rowan Atkinson been licensed to drive since 1981, a skill he hoped would guarantee work?

Lorries fascinated him, so he took the heavy goods test as a young actor in case the parts dried up. He has since used the skill while filming comedy material.

Which supercar did Rowan Atkinson crash twice, the second repair bringing an insurance payout of £910,000?

McLaren F1 ownership lasted from 1997 to 2015 for Atkinson. After the car hit a tree and caught fire in 2011, the rebuild took more than a year.

Which Lion King character did Rowan Atkinson voice, a fussy hornbill who serves as majordomo to the king?

Zazu also gave Atkinson a singing turn in the 1994 Disney film: he performs on I Just Can't Wait to Be King with the young Simba and Nala.

On which motoring show did Rowan Atkinson go top of the celebrity lap board in 2011, quicker than Tom Cruise?

Top Gear put him in its Kia Cee'd, and he lapped the track in 1:42.2, two seconds inside the Hollywood star's time. Only Matt LeBlanc later went faster.

What kind of toy is Mr. Bean's best friend, a knitted brown companion with button eyes?

A teddy bear called simply Teddy is treated as if it were alive, yet Bean has also used it as a paintbrush and shrunk it in the wash.

Which small car does Mr. Bean drive in the television series, painted citron green with a matt black bonnet?

Mini 1000 is the model, a 1977 British Leyland car that Bean once drove from an armchair strapped to its roof. A tank crushes it in a later episode.

What does Mr. Bean get stuck on his head while hunting for his lost watch on Christmas morning?

A turkey swallows his head after the watch slips inside while he is stuffing the bird, just as his girlfriend arrives. She frees him by tying the bird to a coal scuttle and throwing that out of the window.

Which French resort does Mr. Bean win a trip to in a raffle at the start of Mr. Bean's Holiday?

Cannes is the prize, along with a video camera and 200 euros. Bean loses his passport and ticket on the way and ends up busking as a mime to pay for the journey.

Which three-wheeled light-blue van does Mr. Bean keep tipping over or bumping out of its parking space?

Reliant Regal is the make, a 1972 Supervan whose driver is never shown in the original series. Bean is usually oblivious to the wreckage he leaves behind.

In which language does a cathedral choir sing the words of the Mr. Bean theme tune over the titles?

Latin gives the theme its mock-solemn church sound. Howard Goodall adapted the tune from a passage by Anton Bruckner, and the Choir of Southwark Cathedral sang it.

Which American actor plays Carson Clay, the director whose premiere Bean hijacks in Mr. Bean's Holiday?

Willem Dafoe's director watches Bean plug a camcorder into the projector mid-premiere. The holiday footage fits the film's narration so well that the audience gives a standing ovation.

Which French comedian's character Monsieur Hulot did Rowan Atkinson name as the main inspiration for Mr. Bean?

Jacques Tati showed a teenage Atkinson that a comic situation could unfold purely visually, at its own unhurried pace. He first saw Mr. Hulot's Holiday at 17.

What is the name of Mr. Bean's grumpy landlady in the animated series, owner of the one-eyed cat Scrapper?

Mrs. Wicket holds her grudge for a reason: as a boy, Bean rode his go-kart down a hill and crashed into her and her groom on their big day.

What is the name of Mr. Bean's long-suffering girlfriend, who leaves him when no Christmas proposal arrives?

Irma Gobb, played by Matilda Ziegler, appears in three episodes. The book Mr. Bean's Diary supplies her name and reveals that she works as a librarian.

Which servant, played by Tony Robinson, follows Edmund Blackadder through every era of the BBC comedy?

Baldrick starts out sharper than his master in the medieval first series. From the second series on the roles reverse, and he becomes extremely dim.

Which monarch, nicknamed Queenie and played by Miranda Richardson, rules England in Blackadder II?

Elizabeth I is played as a spoiled, childish tyrant whose suitors tend to lose their heads. Edmund competes with Lord Melchett, her fawning Lord Chamberlain, for her favour.

Which actor plays the foolish Prince Regent whom Edmund Blackadder serves as butler in Blackadder the Third?

Hugh Laurie's prince is a spoiled, foppish idiot with the fortune his clever butler lacks. He returned in the final series as George, another dim aristocrat, this time in the trenches.

Which flowers fill the screen as no man's land fades away in the final shot of Blackadder Goes Forth?

Poppies were added in the edit by the episode's director, because the charge over the top had been filmed in a hurry on an unconvincing polystyrene set.

Which actor plays the eccentric General Melchett, rallying his troops from a distant château, in Blackadder Goes Forth?

Stephen Fry's general commands from 35 miles behind the front line. He had already played an earlier Melchett, a fawning courtier, in Blackadder II.

Which stand-up comedian joined the Blackadder writing team for its second series, taking over from Rowan Atkinson?

Ben Elton's arrival came with a severe budget cut that moved the show from castles into studio sets, and with a new, scheming Edmund in place of the dim original.

Which actor plays King Richard IV, father of Prince Edmund, in all six episodes of The Black Adder?

Brian Blessed's king is one of the Princes in the Tower, crowned in an alternative history where Richard III wins at Bosworth and is then killed by mistake.

Which Young Ones star appears in two Blackadder episodes as the swaggering, vulgar Lord Flashheart?

Rik Mayall's Flashheart steals Edmund's bride at the altar in Blackadder II, then returns as a squadron commander in the First World War series.

Which actor plays both Lord Percy in Blackadder II and Captain Darling in Blackadder Goes Forth?

Tim McInnerny's two roles are opposites: Percy is the dimwitted aristocrat Edmund has to put up with, while Darling is a hostile rival of equal rank kept safely behind the lines.

Blackadder: Back & Forth, the time-travel special, was commissioned for a cinema at which London attraction?

Millennium Dome visitors could watch it eight times a day through 2000 in the purpose-built SkyScape cinema. Sky One first showed it on television that October.

Which sketch show, on air from 1979 to 1982, first made Rowan Atkinson a television star?

Not the Nine O'Clock News took its name from its BBC2 slot opposite the BBC1 bulletin, and won Atkinson a BAFTA. Its producer, John Lloyd, went on to produce all four series of Blackadder.

Which creature drives Rowan Atkinson's house-sitter Trevor Bingley to wreck a luxury mansion in a 2022 Netflix comedy?

A bee is the enemy in Man vs Bee, nine short episodes in which Trevor ruins one expensive item after another trying to kill it. A follow-up, Man vs Baby, arrived in 2025.

In which 1990s BBC sitcom did Rowan Atkinson play Inspector Raymond Fowler, a stickler for the rules in Gasforth?

The Thin Blue Line pits Fowler's uniformed officers against the plain-clothes detectives who share the station, led by David Haig's Detective Inspector Grim.

Which screenwriter did Rowan Atkinson meet at Oxford University and later create Mr. Bean with?

Richard Curtis first wrote with him on Oxford revue sketches and a Radio 3 series of spoof interviews. He later gave Atkinson small parts in his hit romantic comedies.

Which speech difficulty does Rowan Atkinson say troubles him less often when he is playing a character?

A stammer affects him mostly when he speaks as himself. Away from the near-silent Bean, many of his best-known characters depend on carefully delivered language.

Which French detective, created by novelist Georges Simenon, did Rowan Atkinson play in ITV films set in the 1950s?

Jules Maigret is a French police commissioner, a serious dramatic role that Atkinson played in feature-length ITV films shown in 2016 and 2017.

For which sci-fi series did Rowan Atkinson play the lead in the Comic Relief spoof The Curse of Fatal Death?

Doctor Who's spoof ran through four more Doctors after Atkinson's. The last was Joanna Lumley, a woman in the role years before the real series cast one.

Which scheming character did Rowan Atkinson play in the 2009 West End revival of the musical Oliver!?

Fagin won Atkinson favourable reviews for both his acting and his singing at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in the musical based on Oliver Twist.

Which sports car maker has collector Rowan Atkinson said he could never live with, despite admiring its cars?

Porsche builds wonderful cars, he has said, but he does not see its typical owners as his kind of people. His garage has held Aston Martins and a Honda NSX instead.

Adverts for which credit card featured Rowan Atkinson's bumbling spy, the character who grew into Johnny English?

Barclaycard ran the adverts in the 1990s with Atkinson as agent Richard Latham. His assistant Bough moved to the films too, though played by a different actor.

In which Hugh Grant romantic comedy does Rowan Atkinson play a newly ordained priest who bumbles through a ceremony?

Four Weddings and a Funeral had so tight a budget that Atkinson's priest turns up at two of the ceremonies, which saved hiring another actor. Extras wore their own clothes.

In which Christmas romantic comedy does Rowan Atkinson play Rufus, a jewellery salesman who exasperates Alan Rickman?

Love Actually's director has said Rickman's irritation was real: Atkinson took his time over the gift-wrapping, in takes that ran to 11 minutes.

In which 2023 film does Rowan Atkinson play Father Julius, who leads a group of monks?

Wonka makes him a sweet-toothed cleric whose chocoholic monks are secretly in league with the city's Chocolate Cartel.

In which 2002 live-action film does Rowan Atkinson play Emile Mondavarious, owner of the resort Spooky Island?

Scooby-Doo saves a twist for the unmasking: Mondavarious turns out to be a robot controlled by the Great Dane's estranged nephew, Scrappy.

Which American actor plays Pascal Sauvage, the French villain who tries to have himself crowned king in Johnny English?

John Malkovich's Sauvage is a prison owner descended from James II. English ends up crowned by accident after knocking the villain off the throne during the coronation.

In which Roald Dahl adaptation does Rowan Atkinson play Mr Stringer, the manager of an English seaside hotel?

The Witches shoot is remembered for a real hotel mishap: Atkinson left his bath taps running, and the flood wrote off much of the crew's equipment on the floor below.

In which 2001 chase comedy does Rowan Atkinson play Enrico Pollini, an Italian tourist who keeps falling asleep?

Rat Race sends six teams from a Las Vegas casino to a locker holding $2 million in New Mexico. Atkinson's narcoleptic tourist nods off standing up in the hotel lobby.

Which actress plays the housekeeper with a deadly secret in Keeping Mum, opposite Rowan Atkinson's country clergyman?

Maggie Smith's Grace quietly disposes of the family's problems, even killing the wife's golf instructor with a clothes iron, while the oblivious husband polishes a sermon.

Which actress plays the British Prime Minister who faces a cyber attack in the sequel Johnny English Strikes Again?

Emma Thompson's premier has to rely on English once every serving undercover agent has been exposed. He is recalled from a new career teaching geography.

At which city's Festival Fringe did Rowan Atkinson first win national attention with The Oxford Revue in 1976?

Edinburgh audiences saw him in August 1976, while he was still a postgraduate. Within three years he had a Radio 3 series and a place in a BBC sketch show.

Which British intelligence agency employs Rowan Atkinson's accident-prone spy Johnny English?

MI7 is where English starts out as a clerk who dreams of becoming its top agent. He gets his wish only when every other agent is killed.