Happy Birthday Rowan Atkinson: How often do you see an electrical engineering graduate play quirky Mr Bean

In the year 2015-16, many cinephiles were more than surprised that actor Rowan Atkinson opted to play a vital role in British Network ITV, lengthy adaptation of Georges Simenon's Maigret Sets A Trap. It was perhaps bound to be astonishing since Atkinson for the longest time had played a comic character from the beginning of his television career in 1979.

Mr Bean Rowan gained fame for his show, Not the Nine O'Clock News and later moved on to Blackadder (intermittently from 1982 to 1989). Of course, the most memorable work of comedy had been Mr Bean (intermittently 1990–95 and after). He also starred in a number of feature films like Johnny English (2003, a parody of James Bond) and Mr Bean's Holiday.

Rowan Atkinson and Mr Bean

A character that cannot be forgotten, Mr Bean till date remains Rowan Atkinson's most brilliant creation. Bean speaks very little as is more of a physical comedian who managed to make us laugh with his sloppy actions after Charlie Chaplin. He became a great silent comedian after Chaplin and he communicated everything by facial expressions.

Naturally, it was difficult to imagine him taking on the role of the world-weary detective Jules Maigret. It is not as if actors haven't played against their own popular typecasting but Maigret as a character was everything that Mr Bean wasn't, in other words, he was anti-Bean.

Where Bean is expressive, always seeking approval, childlike, Maigret is thoughtful, poised, and not so physically active. Maigret stories tend toward the cerebral, even more than the Sherlock Holmes stories. 

The thought which completely failed to cross our mind is that we are often trained to think that people with an aptitude for science, medicines, have lesser knowledge about humanities and anything that has to do with the creative field.

But even without showing us, the man with an Electrical Engineering degree has managed to gain a fanbase. But if he managed to impress us all without a degree, why couldn't we trust him enough with a thoughtful character?