Bean of Brick Lane
Mr Bean mural, Brick Lane. By street artist Benzi Brofman.
I'd really loved Rowan Atkinson's earlier TV work when he was one of a group of alternative, satirical comedians shaking up British TV comedy at the beginning of the 1980s. Shows like Not The Nine O'Clock News and Blackadder felt completely fresh, original and the antithesis of the tired, smug sitcoms that were the standard comedy fare of the time.
But a decade later I was more than disappointed when Mr Bean came along. Gone were the razor sharp comedy lines; instead it was all sight gags and 'funny faces'. Not my thing. I didn't watch it, even when it became a huge hit.
It took having kids to change my mind. Somehow Mr Bean wriggled his way into my kids' TV viewing (blame the YouTube algorithm) and they instantly loved him. Sight gags, funny faces, the whole lot.
And watching them watching Bean, I suppose my view of him changed. I began to appreciate his genius. He is the personification of British social embarrassment, and embarrassment is the wellspring for so much comedy goodness.
So it was nice to see this new mural on Brick Lane. It's Bean in his early nineties prime. I look at him and immediately think of what is perhaps his finest hour: the Steak Tartare sketch.
Bean of Brick Lane
Mr Bean mural, Brick Lane. By street artist Benzi Brofman.
I'd really loved Rowan Atkinson's earlier TV work when he was one of a group of alternative, satirical comedians shaking up British TV comedy at the beginning of the 1980s. Shows like Not The Nine O'Clock News and Blackadder felt completely fresh, original and the antithesis of the tired, smug sitcoms that were the standard comedy fare of the time.
But a decade later I was more than disappointed when Mr Bean came along. Gone were the razor sharp comedy lines; instead it was all sight gags and 'funny faces'. Not my thing. I didn't watch it, even when it became a huge hit.
It took having kids to change my mind. Somehow Mr Bean wriggled his way into my kids' TV viewing (blame the YouTube algorithm) and they instantly loved him. Sight gags, funny faces, the whole lot.
And watching them watching Bean, I suppose my view of him changed. I began to appreciate his genius. He is the personification of British social embarrassment, and embarrassment is the wellspring for so much comedy goodness.
So it was nice to see this new mural on Brick Lane. It's Bean in his early nineties prime. I look at him and immediately think of what is perhaps his finest hour: the Steak Tartare sketch.