Walking disaster zone Mr Bean has been named the greatest TV character of all time, beating Breaking Bad’s Walter White to the accolade.
Pubity fans plumped for the British comedy character over Walter White by 54% to 46% in the final of a Pubity’s ‘You Decide’ tournament, where 32 characters were gradually whittled down in a series of knockout votes.
On his route to the final, Me Bean beat off competition from How I Met Your Mother’s Barney Stinson in the semi-final, Family Guy patriarch Peter Griffin in the quarter-finals, Friends’ Joey Tribbiani in the round of 16 and South Park’s Eric Cartman in the first round.
Walter White’s route to the final was no less arduous and he also dispatched some TV legends. He took out Chandler Bing in the semi-finals and Peaky Blinders’ Thomas Shelby in the quarter-finals. Previously, he saw off two Game of Thrones legends – Jon Snow in the round of 16 and Arya Stark in the first round.
Mr Bean has been a global phenomenon since the character, played by UK comedy legend Rowan Atkinson, first debuted on screen in 1990. Mr Bean, described by Atkinson as ‘a child in a grown man’s body’ tries to navigate his way through everyday situations, but manages to find disaster at every turn. Most of the humour comes from Atkinson’s physicality – the character himself is largely silent. The original TV series only ran to 15 episodes but have been repeated globally ever since. There have also been two big screen outings for Mr Bean, as well as an animated spin-off.
Indeed, it was recently confirmed that a fourth series of Mr Bean: The Animated Series has been commissioned by ITVX. Another 52 episodes will be made and be released globally in 2025.
Pubity plans to host more ‘You Decide’ tournaments this year on a range of subjects – keep an eye on Pubity’s Instagram feed for more details.
