EXCLUSIVE: The Mr Bean and Blackadder legend was asked about his favourite scene to film for his new Netflix series
Katherine Palmer Senior TV Reporter for Screen Time
06:30, 11 Dec 2025
Man vs Baby has just landed on Netflix, and the four-part series serves as a sequel to Man vs Bee, with Rowan Atkinson returning as Trevor Bingley. Whilst his previous role saw him house-sitting, Trevor now finds himself responsible for something far more delicate in Man Vs Baby, after taking on work as a school caretaker.
The Netflix festive comedy chronicles Trevor’s unexpected childcare duties when he’s left in charge of a baby who had been cast as the infant Jesus in the school nativity play, accidentally abandoned by his mother. During a Q&A session following an early preview of the series, the Mr Bean and Blackadder star was asked about his most enjoyable scene to shoot.
His response might surprise some viewers, as he admitted: “I have none, I can’t think of anything that I enjoyed filming. But that’s just me when I’m filming, so I apologise for that.” Even after a moment’s reflection, he remained unable to identify a standout moment from production.
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When pressed, “You are not able to relax, even now?” he responded: “I think the show is very good, but I can also see holes in it. I keep thinking, hmm.” The 70 year old performer, comedian and writer has consistently expressed reservations about his own projects, including his earlier Netflix offering, Man vs Bee.
Speaking on The One Show, he previously revealed: “I’m always glad when it’s over. I don’t really enjoy the shooting, I enjoy the scriptwriting, we spent two years trying to write the thing and compose the thing. I enjoyed the postproduction and the bit of shooting I got quite stressed about. I’m always convinced whatever I have done, I haven’t done as well as I could.”
When questioned by an audience member regarding the Man vs Baby franchise’s future, he responded: “Well there’s nothing in the cupboard at the moment, the cupboard is bare. Literally no plans.” Co-writer William Davies quickly intervened, suggesting there are “many other things” in development, though acknowledged: “Rowan rather would never do anything ever again, that is where we always begin”.
The actor confessed that working with an actual infant during filming “wasn’t easy”, explaining: “You can only have a baby on set for 45 minutes [a total of two hours a day] and a shoot day is eight or 10 hours so there are so many hours that you can’t actually continue filming that scene. You have got to film a different scene, or a different shot, just looking the other way. The scheduling is tricky with babies.
Some of Rowan Atkinson’s past roles
“So we have identical twins, the hero babies, and then we had twin crawling babies because the hero babies couldn’t crawl. So that’s where the CGI comes in, when you implant the face of the hero baby into the crawling baby.”
In a separate interview, Atkinson said he did not create Trevor Bingley with the desire to play a “nice” character. He shared: “No, I think my natural inclination would be to avoid that. I really enjoy playing people who are unpleasant, sarcastic, cynical, or self-centred. I just enjoy inhabiting characters, and the fact that this one is nicer than most doesn’t give me any enhanced satisfaction. It certainly wasn’t a deliberate or contrived thing; that’s just the character that suited our story.
“I’ve never contrived to produce or write family entertainment. Nearly everything I’ve done has only become family entertainment by happy accident. Johnny English and Mr Bean became popular with children, and Blackadder was popular with teenagers, but that wasn’t what I set out to do with any of them.
“To make a family show like this for Netflix has been lovely. I think parents and children could watch Man Versus Bee together very happily, but Man Versus Baby has even more cross-generational appeal, which, I hope, is appropriate for Christmas programming.”
Man Vs Baby is available to stream on Netflix.
