New to ITV comes a celebratory documentary looking back at the 30 years since comedy legend Mr Bean landed on our screens. On the 1st January 1990, ITV broadcast a new comedy show, one stand-alone episode called Mr Bean, starring Rowan Atkinson, who had already gained fame through the hit comedy show Blackadder. Mr Bean ingeniously demonstrates the frustrations of everyday life but with disastrous consequences. This hapless character of a child trapped in a grown man’s body had been the creation of Rowan and his friends who met at university many years before. 

This documentary explores the magic behind this unlikely hero and how just 14 episodes of the live action TV show went on to become a global sensation that is still making us laugh today. There have since been two top grossing feature films, three animated series and an online phenomenon. Mr Bean has a staggering 150 million followers and has over 11 billion lifetime views. 

With classic clips and interviews from key creators, including Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis, we’ll hear the real story behind this iconic character. Find out how he was almost called Mr White and how a famous scene from Four Weddings and Funeral, written for Hugh Grant, was originally conceived to be a Mr Bean sketch. Rowan, in his first recorded TV interview in many years, is candid about the pressures of playing and filming this iconic character, who has gone on to make him one of the most recognisable faces in the world.

Full of laughs we relive the best and funniest clips of the show, including the iconic turkey on the head sketch (remember when Joey from Friends also gets his head stuck in a giant turkey?) and Mr Bean at the dentist.

With classic clips and interviews from key creators, including Rowan Atkinson, we’ll hear how his creation has gone on to become a global superstar with an animated series, two top grossing feature films and an online phenomenon, with more than 110 million online fans and growing.

Mr Bean is a total phenomenon. Who can forget his washing machine sketch or the classic birthday episode? 

There have been hit films, hit TV series - Mr Bean's Holiday, Mr Bean The Movie, Mr Bean The Cartoon. 

James Acaster tells a very funny story in his latest show, Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999, in which he recalls splitting up with his girlfriend Louis Ford and finding out that she was seeing Rowan Atkinson - he joked that he felt as if he had been chucked in favour of the hapless comic character: "No one else in the history of time has ever been left for Mr Bean."

Atkinson is only just 66. He lives in London - he used to live in Waterperry near Oxford – and has spoken up about free speech in comedy.

Last year there was a rumour that Atkinson was going play Hitler in drama Peaky Blinders. The rumours were, however, false, according to a Peaky Blinders spokesperson. 

It's odd that he has never been knighted. As well as Mr Bean he is famous for sitcom icon Blackadder, who is regularly cruel to his underling Baldrick. He has also played Fagin and Doctor Who.

He has won countless awards including a British Comedy Award. The British Comedy Awards are not awarded at the moment but Channel 4 plans to launch a new type of award that sounds similar. 

Happy Birthday Mr Bean, starring Rowan Atkinson, Sunday, January 10, 8pm, ITV1, 

Buy Mr Bean on DVD here.