WHAT'S On talks to Mr Bean creator Rowan Atkinson about the desire to run down the street with no clothes on and the lasting appeal of Mr Bean

It's been a decade since the success of the original Bean movie, why has it taken quite so long for you to make a sequel?

"Well, we certainly never planned a sequel. I mean there was always a demand, a desire that we never satisfied because I couldn't. I wanted to do something different because by the time we made the movie in 1997 I'd been doing Mr Bean fairly solidly for about eight years and I thought it was about time I did something else."

How many concepts did you go through before you got to the holiday?

"Some, yes, but not over a long period of time. I mean I suppose the total period of time from the first meeting - the first meeting to discuss the idea of doing another Mr Bean movie - to the release of this movie is about two and half years. But during that time it went through a number of changes.

"It started off with the title Mr and Mrs Bean, the idea of almost a kind of quasi-romantic comedy.

But we finally felt it was a bit too cheap and cheerful. We fancied something just a bit simpler but at the same time a slightly more sophisticated idea, which was when (actor/writer) Simon McBurney got involved. He came up with the idea of a road trip through France and Mr Bean's dream of a beach in the South of France with the film following his journey.

The big difference this time is that this is Mr Bean being pro-active rather than reactive.

In the first film things happen to him and he has to go along with it whereas Mr Bean's holiday is all his idea and he sets off on his journey and, of course, it's not as smooth as he was hoping."

What is it about the holiday and road trip that offers more comedy?

"France was a good idea because we liked the idea of putting him in a world in which he could not speak the language.

There was greater excuse within the bounds of reality to present a visual film rather than a verbal one and, secondly, we liked the sense of an ever-changing scenery.

It's fun too because it'snice to think of yourself on the journey. There is also the possibility of a great variety of situations. which means a great number of jokes."

Have you been injured while filming at all?



"The only rather amusing injury I got was because at one point I wanted to practise doing a Nazi salute for a particular point so there was an awful lot of (he raises his arm in a swift Nazi salute).

"I did it with such enthusiasm in the rehearsal room that I ripped my shoulder and gave myself a nasty frozen shoulder for many, many months and it's only really now recovered. It's a very unusual problem to have to explain to your osteopath."

Do you enjoy playing Mr Bean?

"I do enjoy it and I find that I know him very well. I find it very easy to play him, and I love his kind of oddity, his strange sort self-servingness. He's a child, and like as child he has that tension within his personality between the desire to conform and to do what adults expect and the desire to do what the hell you like - somewhere between conforming and non-conforming. And I feel that in me quite often. If there is parallel between me and Bean, that's it. That sort of tussle within. You know the desire to run down the street with no clothes on and the desire to wear a suit and walk normally."

Do you think this is it, have you put Mr Bean to bed?

"Never say never, but at the moment it feels highly unlikely, I cannot envisage a good scenario in which I would play him again, but you never know.

Why do people find Mr Bean appealing to watch?

"I suppose the two elements in his favour are that a) he's child and one identifies with his naivety. Not really his vulnerability because I don't think he is very vulnerable but his sort of naivety, that hint of innocence. That childish side of it is something which people do identify with. And there is b) the fact that people enjoy seeing that Bean dares to go where we do not dare to go. Mr Bean has a natural anarchy within him to be brave enough to break outside that social norm and to just do what he wants. People enjoy watching that."

Mr Bean's Holiday opens in cinemas today.