ROWAN ATKINSON

Rowan Atkinson first found fame as a member of TV's Not The Nine O'Clock News sketch team. The huge success of the Blackadder and its sequels propelled him to star status.

He went on to create the famous Mr Bean. A walking disaster, Bean was purely physical comedy, the opposite of Edmund Blackadder's polished dialogue. This clumsy character was a huge success and became another national treasure.

He made his big-screen debut in 1983's unofficial James Bond picture Never Say Never Again. Despite this film receiving mixed reports, he would continue to juggle TV and film roles. In 1997 Bean came to the big screen, and Scooby Doo topped the US box office in 2002.

As a long-time collaborator with writer Richard Curtis, he has regularly contributed to Comic Relief. He even played the 9th Doctor, in the 1999 Doctor Who spoof The Curse Of Fatal Death.