Bean feast!

Rowan Atkinson celebrates 30 years of his hapless comedy character

- HANNAH DAVIES, ALISON SLADE

NEW DOCUMENTARY

Happy Birthday Mr Bean Sunday, ITV HD, 8pm

It really is a happy New Year for fans of Mr Bean, as Rowan Atkinson returns to our screens in ITV’s new documentary Happy Birthday Mr Bean, which celebrates 30 years of the legendary comedy character.

Atkinson, who turns 66 on 6 January, first played Mr Bean on TV in 1990, having developed the hapless hero while studying for a master’s degree at the University of Oxford.

He collaborated on the scripts with Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, but the character’s name wasn’t actually decided on until after the first episode had been produced. In fact, a number of other food-inspired names were considered, including Mr Cauliflower.

INSTANT SUCCESS

The ITV comedy was immediately met with critical acclaim, while more than 18 million viewers tuned in for the episode The Trouble with Mr Bean in January 1992.

Despite only 15 episodes ever being made, Mr Bean quickly became a comedy classic.

‘I always believed that Mr Bean had a very good chance of being successful,’ says Atkinson. ‘Partly because the comedy is mainly visual, and partly because Mr Bean is essentially a child in a man’s body.