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LAUGHTER

2
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MR BEAN: Aha.

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Hooray!

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Whee!

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Oh!

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MUSIC: 'Watch Me'
by The Phantoms

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Mr Bean was just who I was.

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I still find him funny
and I think I can still perform him.

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You know, dye my hair and I'm off.

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I do think Rowan is a genius.

11
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They're the university boys
and I was the secondary school kid.

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You know, rough it up a bit.

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I had the seventh most recognisable
face in the world.

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Mr Bean!

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He's also, in my opinion,
the greatest clown of our lifetime.

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At 8pm on New Year's Day

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ITV broadcast a pilot
for a new comedy sketch show

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starring Rowan Atkinson,
simply entitled Mr Bean.

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ITV were looking
for one half-hour show

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to fill this one gap in the schedule

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and ours was the only one
that seemed to be about.

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And it was
just a complete fluke, really,

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that the first time
it was shown was at eight o'clock

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immediately after Coronation Street.

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It was put in this prime spot.

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When it was presented to the
British public it was so mainstream

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that it never occurred to people
that what they were watching

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was a sort of unique bit of genius
by an irreplaceable comedian.

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They just thought,
"Oh, here's a big, popular show".

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SINGING HYMN

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This first episode
was made up of three sketches.

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'Church sketch
was the first Mr Bean sketch

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'with Richard Briars playing the guy

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'that, unfortunately for him,
I'm next to.'

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MOUTHS

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Just watching a guy trying
to stay awake and he's failing.

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Ah!

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And it's fun
just to watch it in real time.

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The longer it takes for him to
slowly fall asleep in his own lap,

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it becomes funnier.

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The great joy of these
was the rehearsal of them,

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and they didn't take very long.

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We had an idea, it seemed rich, and
we would just sit in a room and say,

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"Well, what's the next thing
that could happen

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"with the resources that we've got?"

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So we've got a hymn book.

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He could have something
in the pockets of his jacket.

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There'll be a hymn.

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And we just
worked it out communally.

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Probably Church took,
you know, an hour.

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Ro has this tremendous ability once
he's got something that's funny,

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never to forget it.

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You know,
really lucky to have met Richard

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all those years ago
when we were students. Really lucky.

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Well, Rowan and I turned up
at a sketch writing club in Oxford

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and I thought
that Rowan was a stuffed toy,

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cos he didn't say anything at all
for the first three meetings.

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And then we were asked to submit
some material and he stood up

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and did two sketches, and I thought,
"Oh, no, he's a genius.

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"That's awkward".

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I actually met Rowan
in my first hour of university.

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I thought, I'd heard there might be,
like, a comedy review group.

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So I went to the desk and said,
"Look, I do music

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"and I'd love to maybe help out,"
and the guy at the desk was Rowan.

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He said, "Well, OK,
someone will come and see you."

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Richard came round and said,
"We're doing a show in three weeks.

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"Do you wanna do the music?"
So I said, "Yes!"

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It really was a group of friends

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laughing at Rowan, you know,
pulling faces.

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We called it a one-man show.

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That'll be Richard, myself,
and Rowan, which is three people.

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It started to be
more and more about Rowan, really,

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because everything he did,

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an audience would just
hang on what he was doing.

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I mean,
Mr Bean was created for theatre,

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for the comedy show
that Richard and I used to do.

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We started to create
these purely visual sketches.

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If I had to tell a story
entirely visually,

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I just naturally
became this character.

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So Mr Bean was just who I was...

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..when denied verbal expression.

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I think it's a funny idea, you know.
He's absurd, but he makes me laugh.

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The sketches
they created for the theatre

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would become the three sketches
in the first episode of Mr Bean.

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It hadn't occurred to us that
there was a universal character.

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One was a kind of bloke
who goes to church a lot,

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one was some awkward guy
with some swimming trunks,

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the other one was a younger guy
who was cheating in an exam.

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When we thought, let's do this
TV show with whatever it was,

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three of them, we thought, oh,
we'd better wear the same costume.

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What was usually funny
was just the process

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of how he gets out of
a difficult situation,

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or how he gets into
a difficult situation.

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Done your revision?

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Oh, yes.

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I've concentrated on trigonometry.

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I've done calculus, mainly.
Oh.

100
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I believe they concentrated
on calculus last year.

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Oh, dear.

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SNIGGERS

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Quiet, ladies and gentlemen, please.

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The exam starts now.

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'Bodily expression,
particularly with Mr Bean,

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'is so very, very important.
It's sort of screaming at you.

107
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'You know, there may be no words,
but you're being shouted at,

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'I think, very loudly
by the bodily expression.'

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The word "compelling"
is quite good, because I think

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that's what draws you
into a lot of Mr Bean's sketches.

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You only had to have
the starting point of the idea.

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He gets locked out of his room,

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or he's going to a swimming pool
or something like that.

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And then you can be pretty confident

115
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that we would be able
to make it work.

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Would those who answered
the green calculus papers

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please put them in the green box?

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And those who answered
the white trigonometry papers

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please put them in the white box?

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What I've always done
on the Mr Beans, as it were,

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I've done the charcoal outline

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and then Rowan adds all the colour
and the texture

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and I laugh at him
while he's doing it.

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'I said stop writing.'

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'Will you stop writing!'

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ALARM CLOCK RINGS

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It is 30 years
since the first Mr Bean

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was shown on British television,
and it became an instant hit.

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Between 1990 and 1995, the team went
on to produce 14 episodes in total.

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I didn't know until this moment
that there were only 14.

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I thought there were probably 114

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and that Rowan had been
coining it in for years and years

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making this never-ending flow
of Mr Beans.

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We did the other 14 episodes
in dribs and drabs.

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We didn't make 14 at once.
We made two,

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and then we made three more,
and then we made one more,

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and then we made four more

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and eventually, we got
to this rather paltry sum of 14.

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They were always given
a sort of prime spot

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and earned their keep there.

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And suddenly, you know,
people realised

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that visual comedy could
actually hold a large audience.

143
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Oh!

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After the overnight success
of episode one,

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the team was in need of new material

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and comedy writer, Robin Driscoll,
was hired.

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In your own time, sir. No rush.

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He would also feature in various
sketches as a straight man to Rowan.

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I would say in the story
of Mr Bean,

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it's Rowan, Robin,
and then possibly me.

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I always think in a way
Rowan and I did the obvious ones.

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We got the low-hanging fruit.

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And what was brilliant about Robin
is that he's just kept, as it were,

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squeezing the lemon, finding new
things, finding different ways,

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taking a little thread,

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be it to do with the car or with
the teddy or anything like that.

157
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My agent rang and said
that they were gonna commission

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a bunch of writers just to send in
some scripts to see if any of us

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could write for the show
and I just wrote a stack like that.

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Richard and Rowan called me in and
said, "We'd love you to join us."

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MR BEAN: Oh.

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They're the university boys,
the Oxford boys,

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and I was the secondary school kid.

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Yeah, I was the last in the team.
You know, rough it up a bit.

165
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One of the sketches was one
that I'd actually submitted

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in trying to get the job.

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And it was being sat in an armchair
on top of the Mini.

168
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And I just thought, no, that'll cost
too much. They'll never do that.

169
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And I watched it the other day

170
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and I thought, "Oh, it's quite good,
isn't it, really?"

171
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A little lap belt, I think,
is holding me in, I think.

172
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That is the huge difference

173
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between filming 30 years ago
and filming now.

174
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Basically, we did everything
for real, and I so preferred that.

175
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I'm sorry to have to tell you that
there is a man hidden in the car

176
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with a small video screen
doing the donkey work.

177
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But still, they're stunts.

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CRASH

179
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Even in that sketch,
the sound of a Mini disappearing

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into the back of a removal van
into a pile of mattresses,

181
00:13:01,960 --> 00:13:04,960
you know, what is that sound?
And it was mainly...

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00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:06,960
EXHALES

183
00:13:06,960 --> 00:13:08,960
Oh!

184
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GROANS

185
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Ho-ho.

186
00:13:12,960 --> 00:13:15,480
I like the little moment
when he comes back into his room

187
00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:18,960
and he blows some of the feathers
out of his mouth.

188
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You had other members of crew often,
you know, whispering to me ideas.

189
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One of the set hands
just came up to me

190
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and he just went...

191
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COUGHS

192
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And puffed out a load of feathers.

193
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COUGHS

194
00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:39,960
I like that.
I'd forgotten that joke.

195
00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:41,960
That's rather sweet.

196
00:13:45,960 --> 00:13:48,960
The scripts of purely visual comedy,

197
00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:52,320
non-verbal comedy,
are sort of dull as ditch water.

198
00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:55,800
You know, they're dull to read
and they're dull to deal with.

199
00:13:55,800 --> 00:14:00,960
So it's actually much more fun
just to have a one-line idea.

200
00:14:06,480 --> 00:14:08,000
And then to be
sort of semi-improvising.

201
00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:11,320
And then Richard would be there very
diligently or Robin just, you know,

202
00:14:11,320 --> 00:14:15,160
writing down what I was doing.
And then at least I could remember.

203
00:14:15,160 --> 00:14:17,320
TV WHITE NOISE

204
00:14:18,960 --> 00:14:20,960
WHITE NOISE STOPS,
MUSIC ON TV STARTS PLAYING

205
00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:25,640
MUSIC STOPS,
TV WHITE NOISE

206
00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:30,160
MUSIC ON TV STARTS AGAIN

207
00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:34,960
The simpler it is,
the more extraordinary Rowan is.

208
00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:36,960
MUSIC ON TV STOPS,
WHITE NOISE ON TV

209
00:14:38,960 --> 00:14:40,960
MUSIC ON TV STARTS

210
00:14:43,960 --> 00:14:45,960
WHITE NOISE ON TV

211
00:14:46,960 --> 00:14:49,960
We set such small boundaries,
because we were thinking

212
00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:51,960
almost in terms of theatre
rather than terms

213
00:14:51,960 --> 00:14:55,320
of what you can set up
with a camera.

214
00:14:55,320 --> 00:14:57,480
MUSIC ON TV

215
00:15:01,960 --> 00:15:03,960
WHITE NOISE ON TV

216
00:15:05,800 --> 00:15:07,960
I'm a great believer
that you've got to sit back,

217
00:15:07,960 --> 00:15:09,960
you've got to shoot things wide,

218
00:15:09,960 --> 00:15:13,960
so you can see as much of the body
as you can at any one time.

219
00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:17,960
WHITE NOISE

220
00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:21,000
And you get this feeling
that you are trapped

221
00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:23,960
in that room with Mr Bean.

222
00:15:23,960 --> 00:15:25,960
You're being forced to watch him

223
00:15:25,960 --> 00:15:29,960
in this very voyeuristic,
rather embarrassing way.

224
00:15:29,960 --> 00:15:33,960
But it sort of
generates a laughter, I think.

225
00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:35,960
I think it does.

226
00:15:38,960 --> 00:15:40,960
WHITE NOISE STOPS,
MUSIC STARTS

227
00:15:42,960 --> 00:15:44,960
APPLAUSE

228
00:15:46,960 --> 00:15:49,960
Just frame it and look at it

229
00:15:49,960 --> 00:15:52,960
and stay there
and let the action play out.

230
00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:54,960
CLICKING

231
00:15:57,960 --> 00:16:00,160
If you want a masterclass
in physical comedy,

232
00:16:00,160 --> 00:16:02,960
I would recommend that you
look at the Queen Mother gag.

233
00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:05,960
'You join us as the royal car

234
00:16:05,960 --> 00:16:08,960
'winds its way to the front entrance
of the Odeon cinema.'

235
00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:11,960
It's the perfect set-up
for Mr Bean.

236
00:16:11,960 --> 00:16:14,960
A long line of people
about to do something

237
00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:17,960
or expectant about something,

238
00:16:17,960 --> 00:16:19,960
and then you just kind of stick him
in the middle.

239
00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:25,640
Yes, the funny thing about this

240
00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:29,480
is that it was originally conceived
and supposed to be the Queen Mother.

241
00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:30,960
And of course, what happened is,
you know,

242
00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:33,000
the Queen Mother got older
and the Queen got older

243
00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:35,960
and the Queen started
to look like the Queen Mother.

244
00:16:35,960 --> 00:16:39,160
And so everyone now assumes it's
the Queen that Mr Bean is meeting.

245
00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:42,800
But that was never the intention. It
was supposed to be the Queen Mother.

246
00:16:43,960 --> 00:16:47,160
The man on the left there is a very,
very handsome younger version of me.

247
00:16:49,960 --> 00:16:52,000
I was put into that scene
as a last-minute thing.

248
00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:55,960
Someone else was gonna do it
and I don't know what happened.

249
00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:59,960
But it was a last-minute
insertion of Matilda.

250
00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:03,960
Clearly, Mr Bean knows
that this is a very formal occasion

251
00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:05,960
and you're supposed
to behave like an adult

252
00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:08,960
and you're supposed to stand in line
and wear the right clothing.

253
00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:11,640
And he's got all dressed up. He
feels as though he's done everything

254
00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:15,960
he could possibly do to fit in with
the conventions of polite society.

255
00:17:19,960 --> 00:17:21,960
The expectation and the pay-offs

256
00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:26,960
that build throughout that scene,
I thought was just amazingly clever.

257
00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:32,960
I had this idea
for the one with the Queen.

258
00:17:32,960 --> 00:17:35,000
And I stood in my living room,
I put on a suit,

259
00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:38,960
and I basically
stood still for an hour

260
00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:41,320
thinking, "What might I have?"

261
00:17:50,960 --> 00:17:52,960
Then I'd take my seven ideas,

262
00:17:52,960 --> 00:17:54,960
this could happen, this could
happen, this could happen...

263
00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:59,960
into the rehearsal with Rowan and
they would turn into, you know, 15.

264
00:18:01,960 --> 00:18:04,960
The costume department
put dental floss inside the lace

265
00:18:04,960 --> 00:18:07,000
so that Rowan could actually see it,
this thing at the back,

266
00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:08,960
and just pull it.

267
00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:12,480
And then when I leant forward
to look for the Queen Mother

268
00:18:12,480 --> 00:18:13,960
it just flopped down.

269
00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:21,000
I'm on dirty look
number seven right now.

270
00:18:35,960 --> 00:18:38,960
That's very silly. His finger's
sticking out the trousers.

271
00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:40,960
Very, very silly.

272
00:18:40,960 --> 00:18:43,800
Oh, yeah. Nothing too low.

273
00:18:43,800 --> 00:18:45,960
I like that with comedy,

274
00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:48,960
when you build up to something
really very shocking and surprising.

275
00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:53,960
HEADBUTT THUDS

276
00:18:59,960 --> 00:19:01,960
Oh, yeah.
It wasn't just thrown together.

277
00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:03,960
Yeah, we tried to make it work.

278
00:19:05,480 --> 00:19:08,960
Matilda Ziegler
was subsequently cast as Irma Gobb,

279
00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:12,960
Mr Bean's girlfriend, and was
the show's only returning character.

280
00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:15,960
Irma's character,
I'm so pleased to say,

281
00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:19,960
was actively encouraged
to be a bit sort of stroppy.

282
00:19:19,960 --> 00:19:21,960
DANCE MUSIC

283
00:19:30,960 --> 00:19:32,960
They're equally self-centred,

284
00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:36,640
which is why I thought
they came together really well.

285
00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:44,960
He met his match.

286
00:19:54,480 --> 00:19:55,960
No!

287
00:19:55,960 --> 00:19:59,960
Matilda Ziegler
has got a fantastic deadpan.

288
00:19:59,960 --> 00:20:01,960
All the life drains from her body,

289
00:20:01,960 --> 00:20:05,960
deliberately becoming
part of the background.

290
00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:07,960
TENSE HORROR MOVIE SOUNDTRACK

291
00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:14,800
Except when he goes blank,
and then it's your turn.

292
00:20:14,800 --> 00:20:16,960
SHE SCREAMS

293
00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:23,960
The last episode Irma appeared in
was Merry Christmas Mr Bean.

294
00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:27,320
It was watched
by 19 million viewers.

295
00:20:31,960 --> 00:20:33,960
SHATTERS

296
00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:35,960
Christmas shopping is going on

297
00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:38,960
and Mr Bean
accidentally gets given a baton

298
00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:42,000
to conduct the Salvation Army band
that's playing carols.

299
00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:44,960
Now, you could do that one way,
which is just chaos.

300
00:20:44,960 --> 00:20:47,960
But what we wanted to do
was something much more precise.

301
00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:48,960
BAND PLAY SINGLE NOTE

302
00:20:50,960 --> 00:20:52,960
TWO MORE NOTES

303
00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:54,960
BAND PLAY

304
00:20:54,960 --> 00:20:56,960
BAND STOP AND START

305
00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:01,960
BAND PLAY

306
00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:04,960
And the delight, I think,
is seeing that work itself out

307
00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:08,960
and the fantastic precision
and beauty of his physical comedy.

308
00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:10,960
BAND PLAY

309
00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:16,960
BAND STOP

310
00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:17,960
ONE NOTE ON TUBA

311
00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:19,960
So there were two turkeys,

312
00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:22,160
one of them was absolutely
brilliant, but not quite right.

313
00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:23,960
It was smaller.

314
00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:25,960
And then on the day...

315
00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:28,960
..this thing arrived.

316
00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:34,960
I thought of the idea for the turkey
on a Christmas Day.

317
00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:36,960
CHOIR VOCALISES

318
00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:44,960
Cos I was shoving stuff
into a turkey

319
00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:46,480
and then I just thought, "Oh!"

320
00:21:56,960 --> 00:21:59,640
And just that moment
when he rises up into shock,

321
00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:02,960
"Oh! I wasn't expecting that!"

322
00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:14,480
'Mr Bean walking around
with a turkey on his head

323
00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:17,160
'looks like an alien creature
from another place.

324
00:22:17,160 --> 00:22:19,960
'There's something...
He came from somewhere else.'

325
00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:21,640
Are you all right in there?

326
00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:23,800
Yes, fine, thank you.

327
00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:28,960
Christ alive!
If someone came down from Mars

328
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:30,960
and saw this, they would destroy
the planet, wouldn't they?

329
00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:33,640
CHURCH ORGAN MUSIC

330
00:22:35,960 --> 00:22:37,320
SHE SCREAMS

331
00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:39,960
The catchphrase
of all the rehearsals was,

332
00:22:39,960 --> 00:22:41,960
"Will they get it in Egypt?".

333
00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:43,960
The idea was that it had to be

334
00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:46,960
something that every person
in the world would get.

335
00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:48,960
Ungh!

336
00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:51,960
POP!

337
00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:53,960
CRASH BELOW

338
00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:55,960
LAUGHTER

339
00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:58,960
APPLAUSE

340
00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:14,000
Within three years
of the first television show...

341
00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:15,960
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Bean.

342
00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:18,960
..Mr Bean
had become a global sensation.

343
00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:23,960
I've never been to Canada before
and it's absolutely splendid.

344
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:24,960
Some strange survey

345
00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:30,960
declared that I had the seventh
most recognisable face in the world,

346
00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:32,960
and you sort of think...
Well, it's odd.

347
00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:35,960
Our friend, Mr Bean.

348
00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:38,160
LAUGHTER

349
00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:39,640
Sorry, Eric.

350
00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:42,960
Globally, I mean, I think we sold,

351
00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:45,960
I don't know how many television
markets there are, 180 or something,

352
00:23:45,960 --> 00:23:47,960
we've sold in 180.

353
00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:51,960
So he became very, very,
very globally famous.

354
00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:53,960
You know, the internationalist thing

355
00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:57,480
means that people
certainly can enjoy Mr Bean

356
00:23:57,480 --> 00:23:59,960
without speaking
any particular language.

357
00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:05,960
I remember a video signing and
there were policemen on horseback

358
00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:09,960
dispelling the crowds and there
was an extraordinary turn-out.

359
00:24:09,960 --> 00:24:11,960
I remember having
this arch of policemen allowing us

360
00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:15,640
to get out the back of the building
into a car and zoom off,

361
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:18,960
and I thought, "This is fun", and
Rowan getting in the back saying,

362
00:24:18,960 --> 00:24:20,960
"I'm hating every minute of this".

363
00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:25,960
Cos he doesn't hanker after
that sort of adulation,

364
00:24:25,960 --> 00:24:28,640
whereas I thought
it was an absolute riot.

365
00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:29,960
Well, it almost WAS a riot.

366
00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:32,960
One of the things I love
about Mr Bean and its success

367
00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:36,960
is the strange fact
that it's so English

368
00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:40,960
and at the same time
be so completely international.

369
00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:44,960
Yeah.

370
00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:46,960
LAUGHING

371
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:49,960
It's odd how such
an inherently selfish

372
00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:53,960
and self-centred person
can generate affection in people.

373
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:55,960
Oh, come in.

374
00:24:55,960 --> 00:24:56,960
Oh.

375
00:24:56,960 --> 00:24:58,000
Rupert.
Bean.

376
00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:00,160
Hubert.
Bean. Come in.

377
00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:04,960
The likeability of Mr Bean
I think is one of his charms.

378
00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:08,480
LAUGHTER

379
00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:11,960
LAUGHTER

380
00:25:16,960 --> 00:25:18,960
LAUGHTER

381
00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:29,960
I suppose it's the sympathy or the
empathy that you have for children,

382
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:33,960
finding it very difficult
to contain his excitement.

383
00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:36,960
He just gets it slightly wrong.

384
00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:43,960
CLOCK CHIMES

385
00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:45,960
BOTH: Oh, Happy New Year!

386
00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:48,960
Goodness me!

387
00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:51,960
Doesn't time fly
when you're enjoying yourself?

388
00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:54,960
Not easy company.

389
00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:56,960
Good night, thank you for coming.
Thank you.

390
00:25:59,960 --> 00:26:00,960
Oh.

391
00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:04,960
An awful lot of people say to me,

392
00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:08,320
"Oh, wouldn't it be fun
to have dinner with Mr Bean?"

393
00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:11,960
And you think, "No, no, no, no, no,
you don't want to be doing that."

394
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:14,160
He would ruin your evening.

395
00:26:14,160 --> 00:26:17,960
He's just got that sort of tension
between conformity...

396
00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:19,960
Is everything all right, sir?

397
00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:21,480
Oh, yes.

398
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:22,960
Are you sure?

399
00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:23,960
Oh, yes.

400
00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:29,480
..and non-conformity, which
I think actually is inside me a bit.

401
00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:35,960
MUSIC GETS LOUDER

402
00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:38,960
LAUGHTER

403
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:43,960
That fight that Bean has between
doing what you're supposed to do

404
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:48,160
and doing what he wants to do, the
desire to challenge and to undermine

405
00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:53,160
and to be silly, and to not do
what people expect you to do...

406
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:55,960
and that's definitely
a big part of me.

407
00:26:56,960 --> 00:26:58,960
LAUGHTER

408
00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:05,000
It's a very interesting
juxtaposition,

409
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:09,960
but the more you know him, the more
Mr Bean sort of makes sense

410
00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:13,960
because, in a way,
there's an element of Rowan,

411
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:17,960
the quite lonely school boy
who people didn't talk to

412
00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:21,960
existing in a silent world,
you know, in that character.

413
00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:30,000
It was myself and a friend of mine
who used to run a thing

414
00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:33,960
called the Sixth Form Film Society
when we were at school,

415
00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:36,960
and this was just an excuse
to get a whole lot of, you know,

416
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:39,960
weird and arty films and enjoy them
really for ourselves

417
00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:42,960
and if anyone else, you know,
wanted to watch them, then fine.

418
00:27:43,960 --> 00:27:47,960
And I remember getting Jacques
Tati's Monsieur Hulot's Holiday

419
00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:49,960
and being so inspired by it.

420
00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:54,960
Yeah, Rowan used to bang on
about Jacques Tati a bit.

421
00:27:54,960 --> 00:28:00,960
The comedy that I'd seen had been
mostly verbal rather than visual,

422
00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:03,960
and it was just
a moment of revelation for me.

423
00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:06,960
It just opened up a world
that I'd never seen before, really,

424
00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:12,960
of a sort of a very particular
kind of comedy which took its time.

425
00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:17,960
That, I think, is a feature actually
of the Mr Bean live action TV,

426
00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:19,960
is that the comedy
actually is never in a rush.

427
00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:22,960
Morning. Do sit down.

428
00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:23,960
Yep.

429
00:28:23,960 --> 00:28:27,480
We have the extremely good
Richard Wilson playing the dentist.

430
00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:32,960
GENTLE HISSING

431
00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:34,960
HISSING STOPS AND STARTS

432
00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:36,960
LAUGHTER

433
00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:39,960
LAUGHTER

434
00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:46,960
When I met Rowan for the first time,
quiet farmer's son, you know,

435
00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:48,960
studying chemical engineering,

436
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:52,960
that couldn't have been further
from this extraordinary outpouring

437
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:55,960
when he just uses
all his physical skills

438
00:28:55,960 --> 00:28:57,960
to be a great silent comedian.

439
00:28:59,960 --> 00:29:02,960
LAUGHTER

440
00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:09,160
I mean, he is very,
very physically skilled.

441
00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:10,960
He makes it look easy.

442
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:11,960
Well, he doesn't -

443
00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:14,960
he makes it look difficult
for the character, but not for him.

444
00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:19,960
CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

445
00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:21,960
LAUGHTER

446
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:27,320
LAUGHTER

447
00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:30,960
And you see how
well-executed that is.

448
00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:32,960
To get the timing of that right
is not easy.

449
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:36,960
Ah!
Ah!

450
00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:56,960
GROANS

451
00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:00,960
It's all, in a sense,
so very predictable

452
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:02,960
and yet so gloriously funny.

453
00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:11,160
Mr Bean is in a dentist's chair and
he somehow has managed to contrive

454
00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:14,960
to render unconscious the dentist
that he turned up to see,

455
00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:16,960
then he's got to do it himself.

456
00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:18,960
You know,
he's got to get to the same place,

457
00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:20,160
but via a different route,

458
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:22,960
and it involves his own ingenuity.

459
00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:24,960
BUZZING

460
00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:36,960
And working out, mechanically,
how the problem could be solved.

461
00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:44,960
That's my brain at work, I'm afraid.

462
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:47,960
Ah!

463
00:30:56,640 --> 00:30:58,960
LAUGHTER

464
00:31:00,960 --> 00:31:05,960
I think the truth of the matter is,
Mr Bean was huge fun to rehearse,

465
00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:10,320
quite a lot of fun to perform
in the theatre,

466
00:31:10,320 --> 00:31:12,960
and quite hard to film.

467
00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:14,960
Excuse us a minute.
RINGING

468
00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:16,480
Susie?

469
00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:19,960
HE SIGHS
Yeah?

470
00:31:19,960 --> 00:31:22,960
No, no, no, not busy at all.

471
00:31:22,960 --> 00:31:24,800
Yeah?

472
00:31:24,800 --> 00:31:25,960
Yeah, Saturday?

473
00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:27,960
Yeah, yeah.

474
00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:31,960
Sorry, look, can I just leave Jamie
here with you for a moment?

475
00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:34,160
I've left my purse in the shop
back there.

476
00:31:34,160 --> 00:31:36,960
But just give him a good haircut,
will you? Be good, Jamie.

477
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:40,160
The thing you would find surprising
about watching Rowan rehearse

478
00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:43,960
some of these sketches is how the
atmosphere is really about detail.

479
00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:47,960
Time to stop, but I have a feeling
that if this happened,

480
00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:49,960
that Bean would...

481
00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:52,000
You know, normal people would say,
"Hang on a minute.

482
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,960
"He'll be back in a second and
I'm first," you know what I mean?

483
00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:57,960
He will want to do something again
and again and again

484
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:00,960
until he's absolutely sure
that he's got it right.

485
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:06,960
Just popped out for luncheon.

486
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:11,960
Me, too.

487
00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:13,640
Oh.

488
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:15,640
Nothing like a quick sandwich.

489
00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:17,960
No, absolutely.

490
00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:18,960
LAUGHTER

491
00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:23,960
When you're actually on the studio
floor trying to make the joke work

492
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:27,640
and do what I'm supposed to be
good at, which is to perform

493
00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:32,800
and make things work, that's when
it just gets very, very stressful.

494
00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:36,320
LAUGHTER

495
00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:45,960
Rowan is a perfectionist.

496
00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:49,000
He's constantly taking in,
"Is that lighting right?"

497
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:50,960
"Is that chair the right chair?"

498
00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:53,160
"Is there a draft?
No, I don't think there's a draft,"

499
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:54,960
and da-da-blah-blah-di-da,

500
00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:56,960
all that is going on inside him.

501
00:32:56,960 --> 00:33:02,960
It's part of that perfectionism that
means that you never lose a laugh.

502
00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:05,960
So wherever there is
a potential funny moment,

503
00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:07,960
the audience will see it.

504
00:33:07,960 --> 00:33:09,800
LAUGHTER

505
00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:16,960
People say,

506
00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:20,960
"Oh, oh, it's so marvellous,
cos he's a perfectionist, you know?"

507
00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:24,960
And I don't regard perfectionism
as a particularly admirable quality.

508
00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:28,160
I think it's more a disease
than a quality,

509
00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:30,960
cos it's very debilitating.

510
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:32,960
It's very draining.

511
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:41,960
My flexible friend.

512
00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:43,160
LAUGHTER

513
00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:49,960
I didn't feel the burden
to be funny on The Blackadder,

514
00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:51,800
whereas something like Bean

515
00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:54,320
it does tend to come down to me
and my performance.

516
00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:05,480
You'd definitely get letters now
if you did that.

517
00:34:05,480 --> 00:34:09,320
You can't kill fish like that,
even if they ARE rubber.

518
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:11,960
Now, that probably
would've taken about 30 takes.

519
00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:14,960
I mean, I can't... He certainly
didn't do it first time.

520
00:34:18,960 --> 00:34:20,960
LAUGHTER

521
00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:32,000
Sometimes I've just got to
get to the point when, literally,

522
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:35,960
I can't be bothered
to do any more takes.

523
00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:39,960
And maybe, you know,
take 18 is better than take five,

524
00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:42,960
but usually it isn't.

525
00:34:53,960 --> 00:34:56,960
There's definitely a number of looks
that, as a straight man,

526
00:34:56,960 --> 00:34:59,960
you have to make sure
you don't double up on.

527
00:34:59,960 --> 00:35:03,960
So there's the sort of look askance
and the look surprised,

528
00:35:03,960 --> 00:35:05,480
and the look disapproving.

529
00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:08,960
And you have to kind of,
"Which one shall I use here?"

530
00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:10,960
Seven A,
"Oh, we'll use condescending."

531
00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:43,960
After five years
of continuing success...

532
00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:45,960
Good night.

533
00:35:45,960 --> 00:35:50,160
..Good Night Mr Bean was the last
episode to be made for television.

534
00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:51,960
THUD

535
00:35:51,960 --> 00:35:54,960
I felt towards the end
of the 14 episodes that we made

536
00:35:54,960 --> 00:35:58,000
that I felt as though
we'd sort of done it.

537
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:03,960
You know, not done the character,
necessarily, but done the TV world.

538
00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:07,320
And of course, it was
after that we made the first movie.

539
00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:09,960
Are you feeling lucky, punk?

540
00:36:20,960 --> 00:36:24,960
Seven years after Mr Bean
was first shown on TV,

541
00:36:24,960 --> 00:36:26,960
Bean - The Ultimate Disaster Movie
was released,

542
00:36:26,960 --> 00:36:29,160
followed by Mr Bean's Holiday.

543
00:36:29,160 --> 00:36:31,160
You speak very good French.

544
00:36:31,160 --> 00:36:32,960
Gracias.

545
00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:36,960
Between them, they took half
a billion dollars at the box office.

546
00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:39,160


547
00:36:39,160 --> 00:36:40,960


548
00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:41,960


549
00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:45,320


550
00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:50,960
When we made The Bean Movie in 1996,
we decided to plagiarise ourselves

551
00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:53,960
and use the turkey-on-the-head
joke again.

552
00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:55,960
Hello?

553
00:36:57,960 --> 00:37:00,960
And also shooting in the '90s
was Friends,

554
00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:03,960
the famous American sitcom,
and they stole the joke.

555
00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:07,960
Oh!

556
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:09,960
Oh, my God!

557
00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:11,960
And of course, when it
came out in the movie everyone said,

558
00:37:11,960 --> 00:37:14,960
"Oh, well, of course
they stole that from Friends".

559
00:37:14,960 --> 00:37:16,960
I'm absolutely dazzled
by the Friends thing.

560
00:37:16,960 --> 00:37:18,480
I only saw it the other day.

561
00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:20,960
I literally can't believe
what happened there.

562
00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:24,640
Bizarre! Bizarre!

563
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:26,960
But in the end, you know,
you can't steal jokes.

564
00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:30,960
Jokes are there to be stolen
or to inspire... to inspire others.

565
00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:34,960
RINGING

566
00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:36,960
Hello?

567
00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:39,960
We made him talk a lot
in the first Mr Bean movie.

568
00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:40,960
You know,

569
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:43,960
we decided that he had to talk a lot
in order to tell our story,

570
00:37:43,960 --> 00:37:47,960
sort of like finding another aspect
to him, and I like the way he talks.

571
00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:50,960
Ah, Mr Grierson, yes.

572
00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:52,960
He's just here
in the shower with me.

573
00:37:53,960 --> 00:37:57,320
After the success
of the TV shows and films,

574
00:37:57,320 --> 00:38:01,960
Mr Bean made a surprising move
to a new audience...

575
00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:02,960
Ah! Phew!

576
00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:05,000
Now, to find my card.

577
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:06,960
How hard can it be?

578
00:38:06,960 --> 00:38:10,000
..when in 2002
Rowan became the voice of Mr Bean

579
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:12,960
for a children's animation series.

580
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:19,000
When it came to contriving
an animated series for Mr Bean,

581
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:21,960
it wasn't conceptually
that big a shift.

582
00:38:21,960 --> 00:38:23,960
Oh, the bargain bucket.

583
00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:27,960
My relationship with the animation
is the single business deal

584
00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:29,960
of which I am most proud,

585
00:38:29,960 --> 00:38:32,800
cos Ro rang me up and said,
you know, "We've got this idea.

586
00:38:32,800 --> 00:38:34,960
"We should do
an animation of Mr Bean,"

587
00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:37,960
and it was a quick phone call
and I remember saying,

588
00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:38,960
"I wouldn't if I were you,"

589
00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:42,000
and I've been receiving cheques
for it ever since.

590
00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:47,960
I find that I can't do the voice,
you know, without, you know,

591
00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:49,160
doing the face.

592
00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:52,960
It has to, you know,
the two have to go together.

593
00:38:55,960 --> 00:38:57,960
MUMBLES

594
00:38:57,960 --> 00:38:59,960
You know, that I tend to,
I very quickly go into it.

595
00:38:59,960 --> 00:39:01,960
That sort of switch
has to be switched

596
00:39:01,960 --> 00:39:04,960
before he becomes
that strange entity.

597
00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:06,960
Go on! Move, you stupid...

598
00:39:06,960 --> 00:39:08,960
Just!

599
00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:09,960
So you've never seen him
in the booth?

600
00:39:09,960 --> 00:39:11,960
I've never seen him in the booth.

601
00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:14,960
Oh! Oh, no!

602
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:18,960
Teddy!

603
00:39:18,960 --> 00:39:21,960
Oh! Come on!

604
00:39:24,480 --> 00:39:26,000
Ah!

605
00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:28,640
Oh, Teddy!

606
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:32,800
That is hilarious.
That's even worse than I thought.

607
00:39:32,800 --> 00:39:34,960
Poor Ro. Honestly,
I'm glad he's getting paid.

608
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:35,960
You know, I think if ever

609
00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:39,960
they made a cartoon
about the adventures of Baldrick

610
00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:41,960
and it was as good as
the cartoon of Mr Bean,

611
00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:43,160
I would be quite happy with that.

612
00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:54,640
I think most of us forget
quite how gloomy the nation was

613
00:39:54,640 --> 00:39:56,960
in the run-up
to the London Olympics.

614
00:39:56,960 --> 00:39:59,960
So when the opening ceremony
happened I think

615
00:39:59,960 --> 00:40:02,960
we were all sitting there,
"Go on, then.

616
00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:03,960
"Prove something to me."

617
00:40:05,960 --> 00:40:10,960
The London Symphony Orchestra
going to play Chariots Of Fire.

618
00:40:10,960 --> 00:40:14,320
Now, that's just poetry, isn't it,
for any Olympian?

619
00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:18,960
So, you know,
the violin started, it was amazing.

620
00:40:18,960 --> 00:40:23,960
And so you're kind of just waiting
for that synthesised bit to come in,

621
00:40:23,960 --> 00:40:25,960
dun, dun, dun, dun,
dun, dun, dun, dun.

622
00:40:25,960 --> 00:40:30,480
We saw the finger, an arm,
and then...

623
00:40:35,960 --> 00:40:37,960
..you saw Mr Bean.

624
00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:39,960
Just genius!

625
00:40:39,960 --> 00:40:42,640
I mean, I just remember
the whole stadium erupting,

626
00:40:42,640 --> 00:40:44,960
and that was
an international stadium.

627
00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:49,960
My heart almost burst when
they cut to Rowan and in some way,

628
00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:54,960
it's symbolising something about the
glorious daftness of our nation.

629
00:40:54,960 --> 00:40:56,160
Bosh!

630
00:40:56,160 --> 00:40:59,960
Beckham, Bean and Bond
in one opening ceremony.

631
00:40:59,960 --> 00:41:00,960
Brilliant!

632
00:41:05,960 --> 00:41:07,960
PIANO MUSIC PLAYS

633
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:18,960
Quite early on
in the first couple of years,

634
00:41:18,960 --> 00:41:21,960
we began developing
specifically musical sketches.

635
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:26,320
We later did a sketch, for example,

636
00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:29,960
where the whole stage
was full of an invisible drum kit.

637
00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:31,960
DRUMMING

638
00:41:33,960 --> 00:41:37,160
And I suppose
the legacy of those sketches

639
00:41:37,160 --> 00:41:39,960
ended up in its perhaps
finest moment

640
00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:42,960
at the opening of the
Olympic Games in 2012.

641
00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:46,000
He was never intended to be
Mr Bean, particularly.

642
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:48,160
He was just a guy in an orchestra

643
00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:49,960
that Richard and I
used to do on stage.

644
00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:51,960
I mean, obviously, because it was me
and cos I was, you know,

645
00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:54,960
trying to be funny without words,
unsurprisingly,

646
00:41:54,960 --> 00:41:57,960
I looked remarkably similar
in terms of his body language

647
00:41:57,960 --> 00:42:00,960
and his general demeanour
to Mr Bean.

648
00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:05,960
It was never meant to be.
It's just me being silly.

649
00:42:05,960 --> 00:42:09,960
And yet, when you go on YouTube
and an astonishing amount of people

650
00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:14,960
have watched it, it says on the
bottom, "Mr Bean at the Olympics".

651
00:42:14,960 --> 00:42:16,960
Even though, you know,

652
00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:20,960
you're in front of endless billions
out there all watching on TV,

653
00:42:20,960 --> 00:42:23,960
bring it all down to the job
that you're doing,

654
00:42:23,960 --> 00:42:25,960
which is basically that.

655
00:42:25,960 --> 00:42:28,960
It wasn't quite perfect when
he took a picture of the audience.

656
00:42:31,320 --> 00:42:33,960
60,000 people laughing at him,

657
00:42:33,960 --> 00:42:38,960
1.2 billion people enjoying it,
and fundamentally,

658
00:42:38,960 --> 00:42:41,960
Ro's just a bit annoyed about the
fact that the flash didn't go off.

659
00:42:41,960 --> 00:42:45,960
MUSIC: 'Heroes'
by David Bowie

660
00:42:53,960 --> 00:42:56,960
It was an enlightened invention.

661
00:42:56,960 --> 00:42:58,960
You know, well done,
Rowan and Richard.

662
00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:00,480
A-ha!

663
00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:04,960
I suppose I always had faith
in its longevity as an idea,

664
00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:08,960
because I thought the idea
was broad and simple.

665
00:43:08,960 --> 00:43:12,960
You know, this idea of a childlike
figure just doing silly things.

666
00:43:12,960 --> 00:43:15,960
The fact that it's lasted is not,
to me,

667
00:43:15,960 --> 00:43:17,960
much more surprising
than the fact that, you know,

668
00:43:17,960 --> 00:43:21,960
Buster Keaton has lasted,
or Charlie Chaplain has lasted.

669
00:43:24,960 --> 00:43:29,320
So if anything was gonna last of our
work, it would probably be Mr Bean.

670
00:43:32,960 --> 00:43:34,960
Get off! What are you doing?

671
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:38,960
There's a scene in Four Weddings,

672
00:43:38,960 --> 00:43:41,960
which was originally
a Mr Bean sketch in my mind.

673
00:43:41,960 --> 00:43:43,960
It's the one where Hugh Grant's
in a room

674
00:43:43,960 --> 00:43:46,960
and then a couple come in
and you know,

675
00:43:46,960 --> 00:43:49,960
do what couples do,
and he has to hide in a cupboard.

676
00:43:55,960 --> 00:43:56,960
Found it.

677
00:43:56,960 --> 00:44:00,640
You know, Hugh's performance isn't
as funny as Rowan's would've been.

678
00:44:03,960 --> 00:44:04,960
'Now future Mr Bean...'

679
00:44:04,960 --> 00:44:08,320
And I mean, he'd be older,
there's no doubt about that.

680
00:44:08,320 --> 00:44:10,960
Old Bean is what we're
now thinking of doing.

681
00:44:10,960 --> 00:44:16,960
He's always had a kind of grumpy
selfishness, which might adapt well.

682
00:44:22,640 --> 00:44:24,800
I still like him.

683
00:44:24,800 --> 00:44:26,960
I suppose what I mean is
I still find him funny

684
00:44:26,960 --> 00:44:28,960
and I think I can still perform him.

685
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:41,960
Ugh!

686
00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:44,960
We've had some meetings
and some discussions and some,

687
00:44:44,960 --> 00:44:47,960
sort of, mini rehearsals where we do
exactly what we used to do before.

688
00:44:47,960 --> 00:44:50,160
I hope it happens and then
it'll be another opportunity to see

689
00:44:50,160 --> 00:44:53,960
the original Mr Bean
in his original setting.

690
00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:56,960
You know, dye my hair
and I'm off, I think.

691
00:44:56,960 --> 00:44:59,000
You know, you must never say never.

692
00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:01,960
Here.

693
00:45:04,960 --> 00:45:06,960
Oh.

694
00:45:07,960 --> 00:45:11,960
I mean, it's just been an honour
in my life to have, you know,

695
00:45:11,960 --> 00:45:14,960
worked with someone who's that,
you know,

696
00:45:14,960 --> 00:45:16,960
who's got that basic brilliance.

697
00:45:18,960 --> 00:45:20,960
Yes!

698
00:45:21,960 --> 00:45:28,800
I think of Rowan
as a brother, really.

699
00:45:30,480 --> 00:45:31,960
AS BEAN: Oh.

700
00:45:33,960 --> 00:45:36,960
Oh! What?

701
00:45:36,960 --> 00:45:38,960
GUFFAWS

702
00:45:38,960 --> 00:45:40,800
AS ROWAN: Yeah, something like that.

703
00:45:46,960 --> 00:45:48,640
Right.

704
00:45:48,640 --> 00:45:52,800
Erm, if you're ready, erm,
we can, er...

705
00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:56,000
Hello?

706
00:45:57,320 --> 00:45:58,960
Hello?

707
00:46:00,960 --> 00:46:02,960
Oh!

708
00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:05,960
LOUD POP

709
00:46:05,960 --> 00:46:07,960
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