UN-bee-LIEVABLE!

ROWAN ATKINSON on being tormented by a bothersome bee

- VICTORIA WILSON

MAN VS BEE NEW FROM FRIDAY 24 JUNE, NETFLIX COMEDY

Rowan Atkinson is buzzing with excitement about playing a bumbling house sitter who R finds himself at war with an uninvited guest in brand new comedy Man vs Bee.

Launching on Netflix on Friday 24 June, the almost silent nine-parter follows down-on-his-luck dad Trevor Bingley, who lands a job looking after a mansion owned by pretentious couple Nina (Gangs of London star Jing Lusi) and Christian (Green Wing's Julian Rhind-Tutt).

But as soon as they're gone, a cunning bee lands on the scene and it's up to Trevor to keep everything under control. Surrounded by priceless artwork, classic cars, the latest tech and a cute dog called Cupcake, what could possibly go wrong?

Everything, promises Mr Bean and Johnny English star Rowan, 67, who, here, tells TV Times more...

This premise is fun! How did the idea come about?

We started with the basic idea of this man, Trevor, being stuck in a house for a week with a bee, but then you can think of endless mini-sketches of how Trevor would interact with it.

We [Rowan created the show with Johnny English writer William Davies] carefully constructed the episodes so that each one ended on a cliffhanger, which engages viewers to click through to the next episode.

It's a TV series but, at 100 minutes, I regard it more as a movie. People can either binge-watch it or watch in bite-sized 10- and 20-minute chunks.

Why choose a bee as Trevor's nemesis?

Bees are probably the only stinging insect that people really like. Bees are genuinely a positive contributor to society, even though you've got to be a little wary of them. They make honey and are very useful.