Rowan Atkinson

Rowan Atkinson was born in Consett, Co Durham, England. He attended Newcastle University before going to Oxford in 1975. Rowan Atkinson then worked and performed at the Oxford Playhouse and later at the Edinburgh Fringe. During his successful stint with the Hampstead Theater in 1978, Atkinson was offered starring roles in two British television series, but chose instead to join the BBC's legendary "Not The Nine O'Clock News" team, where he first performed with Tall Guy director Mel Smith. It was this role that earned Rowan Atkinson the "British Academy Award." In 1983, he began work with “The Tall Guy” screenwriter Richard Curtis on their "situation tragedy" the "Black Adder." Perhaps the most popular Rowan Atkinson role would be that of “Mr. Bean” which began in 1989, and has since become the most popular British comedic export since Benny Hill.

Between 1992 and 1997, gifted comic actor Rowan Atkinson was featured in series of popular British credit card commercials playing a somewhat accident-prone spy. It was at that time Rowan Atkinson got the idea about making a feature film based on the character from the television advertisements.

Having collaborated with Rowan Atkinson over a number of years, producing The Tall Guy in the '80s and Bean in the '90s, Working Title (Rowan's production partners) were looking for another joint feature project with him. "The idea of doing a film about this British spy was perfect," says producer Tim Bevan. "The interesting thing about British movies is that the two genres that seem to be successful are the spy movie and the comedy-this was an opportunity to combine the two."

It has become custom within the movie business to adapt successful ventures from other mediums (books, plays, television series, even popular songs) into film projects. Johnny English, featuring Rowan Atkinson, may be one of the first to adapt a film version from a commercial.

Johnny English -an office-bound junior intelligence worker suddenly thrust into the spotlight when the Crown Jewels are stolen from the Tower of London and a plot is uncovered that threatens world security.