The Mr Bean star on the challenge of playing an ordinary man, why pipe smoking is vital to the role – and whether he was asked to join Top Gear

He has created some of television’s most memorable characters, with millions of fans around the world, but Rowan Atkinson initially turned down his latest role as pipe-smoking French detective Jules Maigret because of the challenge of playing an “ordinary man”.

Atkinson is returning to television this Easter in his first major primetime role for almost two decades but has revealed he said no at first to the ITV show – which some think could fill the vacancy left by the retirement of David Suchet’s Poirot.

The man with the famously fluid face who made Mr Bean, Jonny English and Blackadder huge hits said he was concerned that, “modern television drama [is] very low-key and naturalistic and generally speaking the characters I play have not been low-key or if they have been low-key, I like to relish words and sentences and phraseology.”

Atkinson added: “With something like Blackadder even though he’s a relatively low-key character in a way ... he did relish the lines that he had and the words he was given.”

Although at first he turned down the character made famous on British screens by Michael Gambon 20 years ago and by Rupert Davies in the 60s, the producers came back to him and asked if he would reconsider.

“So I thought about it for longer again and I decided I would.What appealed to me about it was the very challenge that I found difficult. The decision to do it was related to the fact the character is a very ordinary man and, generally speaking, I haven’t played many ordinary men. I’ve played … more characterised people, people who are slightly odd or eccentric.”

Referring to other famous fictional policemen such as Poirot and Inspector Morse, Atkinson said: “Maigret hasn’t got a lisp or a French accent or no particular love of opera or all those other things that people tend to attach to many fictional detectives. He’s just an ordinary guy doing an extraordinary job.

“I really wasn’t sure I could do it. I found it difficult when we were shooting it was a couple of weeks before I settled into not worrying, into finding a way of delivering those lines.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Maigret Sets a Trap: Rowan Atkinson as Maigret and Alexander Campbell as Denis Lecoin. Photograph: Colin Hutton/ITV/Ealing Studios and Maigret Productions Ltd

However, Atkinson was not motivated to play the role created by Belgian crime writer Georges Simenon by wanting to be taken more seriously.

Speaking at a screening in London, Atkinson said: “The one thing I would never wish it to be thought is that you play serious roles in order to achieve some kind of respectability, which you can’t get playing comedy roles.

“I think it’s quite weird that the arts community – for want of a better word – still have a long-lasting cynicism of the importance or the artistic value of comedy. You know, that comedy is just farting about for money, whereas as soon as you play a serious role: ‘Aha! Now you’re an actor! Now you’re going something of meaning, art is something that nobody laughs at and nobody makes any money out of,’ which is an attitude that I would dispute.

What did help Atkinson settle into his new role was Maigret’s pipe, which the detective famously smokes (“At least he’s got a pipe, which is quite good from an acting point of view.”)



In the first of the two films that ITV and producers Ealing Studios and Maigret Productions have set in 1950s Paris (but filmed in Budapest for creative and financial reasons, with landmarks digitally added later) smoking is a key part of the atmosphere.

However, Atkinson acknowledged there may be questions from modern TV audiences about the degree of smoking in the show, revealing he sometimes used real tobacco and sometimes herbal.

“The pipe and pipe-smoking is definitely a very important part of Maigret, his attitude, his world and his time and certainly there was never any attempt to excise it,” said Atkinson.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Maigret Sets a Trap: Rowan Atkinson as Maigret and Lucy Cohu as Madame Maigret. Photograph: Colin Hutton/ITV/Ealing Studios and Maigret Productions Ltd

Simenon’s son John said “If someone had thought of getting rid of the pipe altogether the show would not have taken place. I would’ve insisted, but the question never happened.”

As his father sold around 1bn books globally and with the worldwide popularity of Mr Bean, which was created 26 years ago, it is no surprise that the new version of Maigret – thought to have cost around £2m – has attracted interest from broadcasters around the world.

Despite that and the current trend for European crime drama, just two films have been made – Maigret Sets a Trap, followed by another later in the year – although John Simenon said a third is being developed.

Atkinson said no decision has been taken on Maigret’s future on ITV: “I haven’t been asked to carry on with it. At the moment I’m not thinking never again but also not thinking I can’t wait to play that part again, it’s sort of something in between. It will sort of depend on ITV, whether it goes down well how the audiences like it whether people watch it, all those sorts of things.”

The car enthusiast did admit it was frustrating Maigret is a non-driver and also quashed rumours that he had been asked to present the new Top Gear, saying “it was never a consideration for me and I was never asked”.

And he gave a sliver hope to fans who hope he may one day reprise Mr Bean or Blackadder: “I would never wish to say I would finally wave goodbye to any character if I feel as though I could still play him. The emphasis tends to shift but I don’t think you should be too absolutist about what you play and don’t play.”