What Rowan the swat has in common with Tom Cruise

WOrKING with legendary funnyman rowan Atkinson is a very serious business.

Atkinson, 67, has made a comedy series, Man vs Bee, for Netflix and his co- stars and executives have been lining up to talk about his ‘obsessive’ perfectionism and attention to detail.

Co- star Julian rhind-tutt observed: ‘ He will try out tiny variants of the simplest gesture 15 or 20 times. He was charming, but absolutely ruthlessly professional — and brilliantly obsessed with the tiny details of making something funny.’

tom Basden, who plays a police officer in the show, which is released today, said Atkinson is quite different from ricky Gervais, with whom he worked on After Life.

‘rowan likes to plan and really think it through, especially when it comes to the physicality of the performance,’ said Basden. ‘ He’s the complete opposite to ricky Gervais, who is much more in the moment and follows his instincts.’

In Man vs Bee, which consists of nine short episodes of around ten minutes each, Atkinson plays a hapless house-sitter, trevor Bingley, who is plagued by a bee.

Director Kerr commented: ‘ the most special effect of all was rowan Atkinson’s face.’

speaking this week, Atkinson said: ‘I am a perfectionist, but I am a believer that it is as much of a curse as a good quality.

‘When filming, I am sure there is something better that we did not catch in the take. there is always something that you can’t capture. It’s sad, really.’

Does this make him like another famous perfectionist, tom Cruise? ‘that may be the only thing we have in common,’ he said, seriously.