![]() ![]() At least he's just awkward, and not a pervert," she says. So it could be a relief it is now Mr Bean. For years Benny Hill was the representation of the British man abroad. "At least he's not as seedy as Benny Hill. In some respects Mr Bean's elevation to an icon of Britishness is a step forward for the way we are perceived abroad. After successfully answering "oui" and "non" while ordering a hot drink, Mr Bean is complimented on his French, to which he replies: "Gracias."Īgnès Poirier, the social commentator and author of Touché: A Frenchwoman's Take on the English, has some consoling words. The second and latest film, Mr Bean's Holiday, tells the story of Mr Bean's trip to the south of France, and a large slice of its comedy reflects the stereotypical haplessness of Brits abroad. "I can't believe we met Mr Bean," declares Homer in the special British episode of the Simpsons after the cartoon family are met at Heathrow by a grinning Tony Blair, who voiced himself in the programme. Mr Bean may be a comic masterpiece made in Britain, but the joke is often on him - and us. Mahisefat is one of Iran's most successful comedians. It starred rubbery-faced Iranian comic Hami Reza Mahisefat doing a routine inspired by the British character. In 2001, Mr Bean's legacy in Iran even got legal protection, of sorts, when an Iranian court sentenced two members of a radical Islamist group to flogging and prison for causing a small riot at a theatre show entitled Iran's Mr Bean. There have been more than 14m Mr Bean videos sold worldwide many have been sold in Tehran's shops and stalls. The new film is currently the No 1 box-office attraction in Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. The character has been popular across the Middle East, from Israel to Iraq, for years. It is not surprising that the Iranian guards used Mr Bean with satirical intent. (He's only young, but on occasions, his interview in the Daily Mirror reinforced that impression: Batchelor has to leave a speech by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to go to the toilet and talks of how he "cried like a baby" and "begged" fellow sailor Faye Turney for a hug when they were reunited.) But the young sailor felt it was a more personal slight, a mocking insult that implied he was a bumbling figure of fun. With his short dark hair and friendly face, Batchelor may have simply offered a physical resemblance to Bean in the eyes of his Iranian guards. Which is what most visual comedians are about: Stan Laurel, Chaplin, Benny Hill." "The essence of Mr Bean is that he's entirely selfish and self-centred and doesn't actually acknowledge the outside world," he said. As Stephen Fry once memorably said of Atkinson: "It is as if God had an extra jar of comic talent, and for a joke gave it to a nerdy, anoraked northern chemist." Atkinson himself has said he based Bean on his nine-year-old self. Mainly, however, Bean was the result of decades of the comic studying himself. One of the many ironies in this story is that Atkinson says his quintessentially British creation was in part inspired by a French comic character, Monsieur Hulot, invented by French actor, director, writer and producer Jacques Tati, who released a series of films, including Monsieur Hulot's Holiday. If Mr Bean has become an inadvertent ambassador for the British personality, it is uncomfortable not just for Batchelor, but for millions of us. Resplendent in geeky tweed, the Mini-driving Mr Bean increasingly seems to be a symbol of Britishness around the globe. And if you ask a non-Brit to describe Mr Bean, these are the words they deliver back: hapless, awkward, self-conscious, childlike, disaster-prone. The lastest Bean film, Mr Bean's Holiday, is a global smash hit, No 1 in 21 countries and top of the international box office. Mr Bean is one of the most successful British cultural exports ever: since the first Bean TV show was broadcast in 1990, its 14 half-hour programmes have been sold to more than 200 TV territories worldwide and shown on more than 50 airlines. "I asked the interpreter what was going on and he said: 'They think you look like Mr Bean.' They were trying to make me feel like a fool, hoping that I would give away secrets to prove that I wasn't." making me feel about three inches tall," he told the Mirror. "All I could make out in their language were the words 'Mr Bean'. But what really seemed to enrage the 20-year-old Royal Navy operator maintainer was his interrogation. ![]() Singled out by his captors in the mistaken belief he was the navigator of the British vessel that had supposedly strayed into Iranian waters, Arthur Batchelor was blindfolded, tied with plastic handcuffs and kept in solitary confinement for days. T he young sailor was subjected to an ordeal he found "beyond terrifying". ![]()
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