ME BEAN SERIES SHORTS #7

LET'S KNOW ABOUT MRBEAN'S CAR..

Atkinson met makeup artist Sunetra Sastry in the late 1980s when she was working for the BBC, and they married in February 1990.[69] They had two children together,[70] and lived in Apethorpe.[71] In 2013, at the age of 58, Atkinson began an affair with 32-year-old comedian Louise Ford after they met while performing in a play together.[1] Ford ended her relationship with comedian James Acaster in order to be with Atkinson,[1] who in turn separated from his wife in 2014 and divorced her in 2015.[72] He has one child with Ford.[73]

Cars
Atkinson holds a category C+E (formerly "Class 1") lorry driving licence, gained in 1981, because lorries held a fascination for him, and to ensure employment as a young actor. He has also used this skill when filming comedy material. In 1991, he starred in the self-penned The Driven Man, a series of sketches featuring Atkinson driving around London trying to solve his obsession with cars, and discussing it with taxi drivers, policemen, used-car salesmen and psychotherapists.[74] A lover of and participant in car racing, he appeared as racing driver Henry Birkin in the television play Full Throttle in 1995.

Atkinson racing in a Jaguar Mark VII M at the Goodwood Revival motor racing festival in England in 2009
Atkinson has raced in other cars, including a Renault 5 GT Turbo for two seasons for its one make series. From 1997 to 2015, he owned a rare McLaren F1, which was involved in an accident in Cabus, near Garstang, Lancashire, with an Austin Metro in October 1999.[75] It was damaged again in a serious crash in August 2011 when it caught fire after Atkinson reportedly lost control and hit a tree.[76][77] That accident caused significant damage to the vehicle, taking over a year to be repaired and leading to the largest insurance payout in Britain, at £910,000.[78] He has previously owned a Honda NSX,[79] an Audi A8,[80] a Škoda Superb, and a Honda Civic Hybrid.[81]

The Conservative Party politician Alan Clark, a devotee of classic motor cars, recorded in his published Diaries a chance meeting with a man he later realised was Atkinson while driving through Oxfordshire in May 1984: "Just after leaving the motorway at Thame I noticed a dark red DBS V8 Aston Martin on the slip road with the bonnet up, a man unhappily bending over it. I told Jane to pull in and walked back. A DV8 in trouble is always good for a gloat." Clark writes that he gave Atkinson a lift in his Rolls-Royce to the nearest telephone box, but was disappointed in his bland reaction to being recognised, noting that: "he didn't sparkle, was rather disappointing and chétif."[82]

In July 2001, Atkinson crashed an Aston Martin V8 Zagato at an enthusiasts' meeting, but walked away unhurt. This was while he was competing in the Aston Martin Owners Club event, at the Croft Racing Circuit, Darlington.[83]

One car Atkinson has said he will not own is a Porsche: "I have a problem with Porsches. They're wonderful cars, but I know I could never live with one. Somehow, the typical Porsche people – and I wish them no ill – are not, I feel, my kind of people."[81][84]

In July 2011, Atkinson appeared as the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" on Top Gear, driving the Kia Cee'd around the track in 1:42.2, which at the time granted him first place on the leaderboard; subsequently, only Matt LeBlanc set a faster time.