Rowan Atkinson told a packed Mowlem Theatre in Swanage why Jacques Tati’s 1953 comedy was central to his comic imagination, using the Purbeck Film Festival screening of Mr Hulot’s Holiday as the springboard for an anecdote-rich evening about how he created Mr Bean.
From a schoolroom projection to a character on stage
In conversation with cultural historian and author Matthew Sweet, Atkinson described first seeing Tati’s film at the age of 17, when it was projected on the wall of his schoolroom. The actor told the audience that watching Mr Hulot’s Holiday again on the big screen in Swanage highlighted the qualities that shaped his own work—its physical inventiveness, the precision of its staging and its humane outlook.
“Seeing the film again tonight, I can see where I got my inspiration from. It was more consistently funny than I remembered,”
Atkinson paid tribute to Tati’s protagonist as “warm, funny, gangling and fundamentally decent”, contrasting that character with his own more alien and less charming creation, Mr Bean. He spoke candidly about the research he did before appearing at the festival and offered anecdotes about the making of his own film Mr Bean’s Holiday (2007) and the importance he places on sound in largely non-verbal comedy.
What the evening covered
- Screening of Jacques Tati’s Mr Hulot’s Holiday at the Purbeck Film Festival.
- An onstage interview with Matthew Sweet exploring Tati’s influence on British comedy.
- Atkinson’s reflections on the creation and evolution of Mr Bean, plus notes on his film work and future stage plans.
The event afforded a rare chance for an audience to hear Atkinson dissect the mechanics of physical comedy and trace a line from Tati’s subtle, observational humour to his own broader repertoire, which includes Blackadder and sketch work from Not the Nine O’Clock News. He also fielded questions about his upcoming live show in London, Rowan Live, which he said will gather familiar sketches alongside newly written material created with long-term collaborators Richard Curtis, Ben Elton and Howard Goodall.
Atkinson’s screen and stage record
Atkinson reminded the audience of the scale of the Mr Bean phenomenon while placing it in context with his wider career. His work as Mr Bean spans television, film and animation, and his return to live performance will see him revisit several of the characters that have shaped his public life.
| Format | Number |
|---|---|
| Feature films (Mr Bean) | 2 |
| Television episodes | 14 |
| Animated shows | 186 |
Those figures underline how a largely non-verbal character became a global commodity while also remaining a site for creative experimentation. Atkinson’s reflections at Purbeck underline the debt many contemporary comedians acknowledge to earlier cinematic forms of physical comedy.
Festival context and what comes next
The Purbeck Film Festival continues through October and will culminate with an awards ceremony. Atkinson’s appearance at Swanage—part conversation, part informal masterclass—brought a sense of showmanship to the rural festival circuit and emphasised how heritage screenings can spark fresh readings of modern comedy.
For fans and students of performance it was an instructive night: a senior practitioner explaining how inspiration can be both accidental and then carefully honed into an enduring comic voice, and a reminder that even the most recognisable characters can trace their origins to modest childhood encounters with cinema.
Atkinson is due to return to the London stage next year with Rowan Live, where audiences can expect a blend of the familiar and the new, including material built in collaboration with writers who have accompanied him through much of his career.
