Rowan Atkinson
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50 free Rowan Atkinson trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Rowan Atkinson can get a laugh without saying a word, as Mr. Bean, and with nothing but words, as the withering Edmund Blackadder. Few comedians have built two such different characters, and fewer still have added a bumbling secret agent, a string of scene-stealing film cameos and a serious detective drama on top. This quiz covers the whole career: the sketch show that launched him, the sitcoms and their casts, the Bean and Johnny English films, his voice work and guest parts in other people's hits, and his stage roles. It also looks at the man off screen, from his school and university days to his well-known love of fast cars. The opening questions suit anyone who grew up with his best-known characters. Later ones are for fans who remember the supporting players, the writers and the one-off specials. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which subject did Rowan Atkinson study at Newcastle University and Oxford before he turned to comedy full time?
Electrical engineering
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.
Q 02Which future British prime minister went to the Durham Chorister School at the same time as Rowan Atkinson?
Tony Blair
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.
Q 03Which famous painting does Mr. Bean ruin with a sneeze and an inky handkerchief in the 1997 film Bean?
Whistler's Mother
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.
Q 04In which African country was Rowan Atkinson on holiday in 2001 when the pilot of his private plane fainted?
Kenya
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.
Q 05Which future Hollywood star, then aged ten, appeared with Rowan Atkinson in the 1984 West End comedy The Nerd?
Christian Bale
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.
Q 06Which large vehicles has Rowan Atkinson been licensed to drive since 1981, a skill he hoped would guarantee work?
Lorries
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.
Q 07Which supercar did Rowan Atkinson crash twice, the second repair bringing an insurance payout of £910,000?
McLaren F1
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.
Q 08Which Lion King character did Rowan Atkinson voice, a fussy hornbill who serves as majordomo to the king?
Zazu
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.
Q 09On which motoring show did Rowan Atkinson go top of the celebrity lap board in 2011, quicker than Tom Cruise?
Top Gear
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.
Q 10What kind of toy is Mr. Bean's best friend, a knitted brown companion with button eyes?
A teddy bear
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.
Q 11Which small car does Mr. Bean drive in the television series, painted citron green with a matt black bonnet?
Mini 1000
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.
Q 12What does Mr. Bean get stuck on his head while hunting for his lost watch on Christmas morning?
A turkey
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.
Q 13Which French resort does Mr. Bean win a trip to in a raffle at the start of Mr. Bean's Holiday?
Cannes
Q 21Which monarch, nicknamed Queenie and played by Miranda Richardson, rules England in Blackadder II?
Elizabeth I
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.
Q 22Which actor plays the foolish Prince Regent whom Edmund Blackadder serves as butler in Blackadder the Third?
Hugh Laurie
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.
Q 23Which flowers fill the screen as no man's land fades away in the final shot of Blackadder Goes Forth?
Poppies
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.
Q 14Which three-wheeled light-blue van does Mr. Bean keep tipping over or bumping out of its parking space?
Reliant Regal
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.
Q 15In which language does a cathedral choir sing the words of the Mr. Bean theme tune over the titles?
Latin
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.
Q 16Which American actor plays Carson Clay, the director whose premiere Bean hijacks in Mr. Bean's Holiday?
Willem Dafoe
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.
Q 17Which French comedian's character Monsieur Hulot did Rowan Atkinson name as the main inspiration for Mr. Bean?
Jacques Tati
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.
Q 18What is the name of Mr. Bean's grumpy landlady in the animated series, owner of the one-eyed cat Scrapper?
Mrs. Wicket
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.
Q 19What is the name of Mr. Bean's long-suffering girlfriend, who leaves him when no Christmas proposal arrives?
Irma Gobb
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.
Q 20Which servant, played by Tony Robinson, follows Edmund Blackadder through every era of the BBC comedy?
Baldrick
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.
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.
Q 24Which actor plays the eccentric General Melchett, rallying his troops from a distant château, in Blackadder Goes Forth?
Stephen Fry
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.
Q 25Which stand-up comedian joined the Blackadder writing team for its second series, taking over from Rowan Atkinson?
Ben Elton
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.
Q 26Which actor plays King Richard IV, father of Prince Edmund, in all six episodes of The Black Adder?
Brian Blessed
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.
Q 27Which Young Ones star appears in two Blackadder episodes as the swaggering, vulgar Lord Flashheart?
Rik Mayall
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.
Q 28Which actor plays both Lord Percy in Blackadder II and Captain Darling in Blackadder Goes Forth?
Tim McInnerny
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.
Q 29Blackadder: Back & Forth, the time-travel special, was commissioned for a cinema at which London attraction?
Millennium Dome
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.
Q 30Which sketch show, on air from 1979 to 1982, first made Rowan Atkinson a television star?
Not the Nine O'Clock News
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.