Electric avenue
It's hard to imagine Rowan as an electrical engineer (especially when picturing some of Mr Bean's electrical mishaps!) but it nearly became reality. He completed his degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Newcastle
University, and went on to do an MSc in Engineering Science at Oxford. However, meeting English student, and future comic writer, Richard Curtis led him to swap the electrical circuit for the comedy circuit.

A vision of Bean?
Onlookers at a restaurant one night in the 1980s got a sneak preview of Mr Bean when a nervous Rowan, on a first date, began to panic. After a silent 15 minutes he made a comical dash to the toilet before explaining on his return that his trouser zip had stuck and he needed a safety pin. His date must have forgiven him as she was Sunetra Sastry, whom he married in 1990.

Beating the bullies
Rowan's distinctive looks could have haunted his Durham school days, where he acquired nicknames such as Zoonie and Moonman. But early signs of his comic talent emerged and he used the insults to his advantage, winning the bullies around with face-pulling stunts behind the teacher's back.

Boy racer
Beyond the image of him driving a clapped-out Mini as Mr Bean, Rowan is a real car enthusiast. Rowan now owns several classic cars and once competed in a veteran car race across France driving a 1958 AC Ace. He didn't win.

Celebrity hell
Rowan has never enjoyed being in the limelight and is reputed to have never even watched an entire episode of Blackadder. He is even believed to have listed his occupation as an engineer in his passport long after he found TV fame in Not the Nine O'Clock News.

Not such a cunning plan
Though Blackadder was voted the third most memorable TV character ever in a recent viewers' poll, Rowan's reincarnating hero nearly fell at the first hurdle. Former BBC boss Michael Grade threatened to axe the show after series one because he felt there weren't enough laughs per pound spent. He persisted and the rest, of course, is history.