Coys Auction - Fine Motor Cars
Blenheim Palace,
Woodstock,
Oxfordshire OX20 1PX

Saturday 5th July 2008 at 14.30

The character of Mr. Bean was first developed when Rowan Atkinson was studying for his MSc at Oxford University. A sketch featuring the character was being performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in the early 1980s. A similar character called Robert Box, played by Atkinson, appeared in the one-off 1979 ITV sitcom Canned Laughter, which also featured a routine used in the film version.

In 1987, one of Mr. Bean''s earliest appearances occurred at the "Just for Laughs" comedy festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. When program co-ordinators were scheduling Atkinson into the festival program, Atkinson insisted that he perform on the French-speaking bill rather than the English-speaking program. Having no French dialogue in his act at all, program co-ordinators could not understand why Atkinson wanted to perform on the French bi