(It only took a little over forty five years).
To celebrate Rowan Atkinson’s 70th birthday, Ryan Gilbey wrote his list of Rowan’s best film performances in The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jan/09/rowan-atkinson-at-70-his-best-films-ranked
And to celebrate being number one I wrote to Ryan Gilbey:
I copied the email to Martin Lewis, who replied:
Pete Townshend* (I have restored the missing “H” from his surname!) was sensational. In the stage show he appeared immediately after “Schoolmaster” and his first words were “follow THAT?!”
I’m going to gently correct you on one point. The villains who wanted to leave out Rowan were not the BBC! I had wanted the film to be released theatrically. Roger Graef was reluctant. And because – quite reasonably – he needed to be reimbursed for his expenditures – he hustled the film to LWT (who he was working with on other projects). LWT would only go with a 50-minute TV slot. So Rowan (an unknown) and Cook’s Thorpe piece were both under threat. We convinced LWT on Rowan. But failed to get them to agree to Cook.
For those of you who haven’t seen it please enjoy here (I can take no credit for the video, it is not mine, found on youtube):
