Category: Rowan Atkinson

  • The Thin Blue Clips
    The Thin Blue Clips

    It won’t surprise you that as the BBC prepared to broadcast The Thin Blue Line, it got quite a bit of newspaper coverage. That was due to the return of Rowan Atkinson in a Ben Elton written sitcom. As with all these things, the earlier bits tend to try and tie them into the news…

  • Oh What The Hell
    Oh What The Hell

    Some day there will be complete archive of all the corporate and training videos that Video Arts ever made. The company was co-founded by John Cleese, and their output features almost every comedy actor and comedian you might think of. One such title is Oh What The Hell, from 1984, which teaches the dangers of…

  • Dead On Time
    Dead On Time

    In the autumn of 1982, Rowan Atkinson filmed a short movie called Dead On Time. It was written by him and Richard Curtis, and directed by Lyndall Hobbs, with music by Howard Goodall. It featured a veritable feast of comedy actors. It received a full cinema release in February of 1983.

  • Mr Bean’s Limited Potential On Radio
    Mr Bean’s Limited Potential On Radio

    Considering that it went on to win the Rose D’Or, be watched by upwards of 18 million people, and spawned two movies that have grossed half a billion dollars between them, Mr Bean arrived on our screens with a relative whisper. The first mention of the show appears in this article about Paul Bown, star…

  • Rowan Raises The Roof
    Rowan Raises The Roof

    Here’s a good review from The Stage, dated 13th Match 1986. It’s Rowan Atkinson’s live show at the Shaftesbury Theatre (the one used in The Tall Guy?), which was called The New Revue, written by Atkinson, Curtis, and Elton, with music by Howard Goodall. If this is the same version of the show that got…

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  • Proctology: A Bottom Examination
    Proctology: A Bottom Examination

    For a long time now I’ve been wanting to write an old-fashioned programme guide. One you can hold in your hand and thumb through, make notes on, spill coffee on. So I did. Proctology: A Bottom Examination is my deep dive into Bottom, the hit BBC Two sitcom starring Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson. That’s…

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  • Re-Casting Keanu
    Re-Casting Keanu

    Keanu Reeves is 56. That makes him eight years older than Clive Dunn was when he was first cast in Dad’s Army. But don’t panic, Clive Dunn was always playing much older characters than his own age. Keanu Reeves is 56. That makes him seven years older than Stephanie Cole was when she was first…

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