Man Vs Bee an ‘extension of 90s Mr Bean sketch’, says Rowan Atkinson-Charlotte Manning-Entertainment – Metro

Man Vs Bee has finally landed on Netflix and it seems Rowan Atkinson’s latest comedy project has inspiration from one of his most iconic characters ever.

Rowan, 67, is one of the best-loved actors and comedy stars in the UK and is back on our screens in his brand new streamed series. 

In Man Vs Bee, the star plays Trevor, who hasn’t had much luck in the world of work. He was fired from Asda after an altercation with a trolley and from an office after ending up losing a battle with a shredder, as you do. 

In a last-ditch attempt from the divorcee to impress his teenage daughter, he takes a job as a housesitter, for a very wealthy family. 

Of course, in his classic style, things go very wrong, very quickly, when he meets his new nemesis. A bee.

The series, which plays out through 10 short episodes, has already received praise from critics and has been compared to some of his previous works. 

Rowan compared Trevor with an older character of his (Picture: Netflix/Rex)

It seems this is no mistake though, as Rowan compared the new series to a sketch he performed in probably his most famous character, Mr Bean.

When chatting about the logistics of filming with ‘a bee’ (more on that in a minute), he told Metro.co.uk and other press: ‘I’m sort of use that sort of thing.

‘I did a Mr Bean sketch a long, long time ago, in a park where he takes a picnic basket to the park, and he’s, he’s very, very bothered by a bee. 

Things so go very, very wrong (Picture: Netflix)

To a certain extent, I feel that some of this show feeds off that. It’s like an extension and extrapolation from that, the old scripts that we did in the early 90s.

Moments earlier, he’d explained just how things worked with getting the other main character in the series.  

Meet your new worst enemy… (Picture: Netflix)

He told press: ‘It was usually a little plastic bee on the end of a rod [controlled] by a very nice woman called Sarah, who was a puppeteer on set and she was great. 

But sometimes we had to shoot it without any rods, or plastic bees, and then had to remember where Sarah went and I tried to follow the same eyeline and remember that, if the bee’s close, then obviously, [my eyes are] going to be a little more crossed, and it’s a bit further away… 

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Rowan went on to add: ‘You learn some basic techniques, pretending something is there that isn’t because it really wasn’t there, when there wasn’t even a tennis ball or a plastic bee. 

‘Sometimes there was absolutely nothing!’

Man Vs Bee can be streamed in full on Netflix now.

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