Mr. Bean

Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis created Mr. Bean, which was produced by Tiger Aspect and starred Atkinson as the title character. The sitcom consists of 15 episodes co-written by Atkinson, Curtis, and Robin Driscoll. The series debuted on ITV on January 1, 1990, with the pilot episode, and ended on December 15, 1995, with "The Best Bits of Mr. Bean". Based on a character created by Atkinson while pursuing his master's degree at the University of Oxford, the series follows Mr. Bean, who Atkinson describes as "a child in a grown man's body", as he solves various problems presented by everyday tasks and frequently causes disruption in the process. The series has been influenced by physical comedy actors such as Jacques Tati and those from early silent films.

Mr. Bean received widespread acclaim and drew large television audiences during its initial five-year run. The episode "The Trouble with Mr. Bean" received 18.74 million viewers and a number of international awards, including the Rose d'Or. Since then, the series has been sold in 245 countries around the world. It spawned an animated spin-off and two theatrical feature-length films, as well as Atkinson reprising his role as Mr. Bean for a performance at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Summer Olympics, television commercials, and several sketches for Comic Relief. The program carries strong appeal in hundreds of territories worldwide because, in addition to the acclaim from its original run, it uses very little intelligible dialogue, making it accessible to people who know little or no English.