I'm too old to play Mr Bean again: Rowan Atkinson, 56, says goodbye to his bumbling character



He is Rowan Atkinson’s most commercially successful creation.

However, Mr Bean is unlikely to appear on our screens again in any new adventures.

Atkinson, 56, says he believes he is too old to play the bumbling character.

'Getting on': Comedian Rowan Atkinson, pictured in Sydney yesterday, claims he's too old to play Mr Bean

Mr Bean first blundered on to television in an ITV series which ran for five years from 1990.

Despite the derision of some critics, the programme proved a huge ratings success, with viewing figures of more than 18million.

The character proved such a draw – even in the notoriously difficult U.S. market – that two films were made of his exploits, Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie in 1997 and Mr Bean’s Holiday four year ago.



Between them the two films earned £305million worldwide.

Cartoon-like character: Atkinson last played the bumbling character in Mr Bean's Holiday in 2007

However, Atkinson – who describes Mr Bean as 'a child in a grown man’s body' - says: 'I’ve got a feeling I probably won’t play the character [Mr Bean] again.

'Never say never, but I just feel I’m getting too old for it. I’ve always liked Mr Bean as a cartoon-like figure, who doesn’t really age much.



'I’ve always seen him as an ageless and timeless being and I’m clearly not ageless and timeless.



'The older I get, I feel I am less qualified to play him.'

The comedian – who starred in Not The Nine O’Clock News in the late 1970s and 1980s and in Blackadder from 1983 – was interviewed in Australia to publicise the sequel to the 2003 James Bond spoof movie Johnny English – Johnny English Reborn.

Junket: Atkinson is currently in Australia promoting Johnny English Reborn with co-stars Gillian Anderson and Rosamund Pike



