Rowan Atkinson's IQ is widely listed as 178, but no test, date or source has been given for it. His documented record is two engineering degrees, rare for a comedian, and proof of nothing numerical.
A farmer's son with a stammer and a rubber face
Born 6 January 1955 in Consett, the youngest of four sons of Eric, a farmer and company director, and Ella May. He has had a stammer since childhood, and has said it disappears when he's playing a character.
Grew up on the family farm near this steel town in County Durham, the youngest of four brothers.
Attended the Durham Chorister School, a prep school attached to the cathedral, a few years below Tony Blair.
Boarded at St Bees School on the Cumbrian coast, where he did best in science and began performing in school productions.
Education, wired in series
Each component feeds the next. The last one diverts current to the stage.
Prep school attached to Durham Cathedral.
Science A-levels at a Cumbrian independent school.
Electrical and electronic engineering.
Electrical engineering; research into self-tuning control systems. Joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society and Experimental Theatre Club.
Began a doctorate but left as comedy took over, after sell-out Edinburgh Fringe shows with Richard Curtis.
Tune the comic timing
His Oxford research was in control systems, how a system settles after a sudden change. Here's a standard second-order step response. Turn the damping and watch the reaction overshoot, wobble or land dead-on. An engineering toy, not a theory of comedy.
Big overshoot and a long wobble before settling. Plenty of Mr. Bean energy.
The characters, and the rest
Four series following a scheming Edmund Blackadder from the Middle Ages to the First World War trenches. The final episode is often called one of the greatest in British TV.
A near-silent man-child in a tweed jacket. Fourteen TV episodes sold to more than 200 territories, then two films (1997, 2007) and an animated series.
A bungling British agent in Johnny English (2003), Reborn (2011) and Strikes Again (2018).
Played Georges Simenon's Paris detective straight, in four feature-length films.
BBC sketch show; won him a BAFTA.
The nervous vicar, Father Gerald.
Voice of the hornbill Zazu.
Ben Elton's police sitcom.
Played a single note of “Chariots of Fire”, and daydreamed.
Netflix series: a house-sitter at war with a bee.
Father Julius, a chocolate-addicted priest.
A lifelong car enthusiast; he raced and wrote about cars, and survived a high-speed crash in his own McLaren.
Sources
- Newcastle University alumni records
- The Queen's College, Oxford, honorary fellowship citation
- BBC Genome, Not the Nine O'Clock News and Blackadder listings
- Tiger Aspect Productions, Mr. Bean distribution
- What's Your IQ editorial review of circulated figures