Ana Blumenkron/Netflix
Rowan Atkinson stars in the new Christmas comedy series on Netflix
A Welsh choir appearing in a new Netflix comedy series starring Rowan Atkinson say it presents an opportunity to showcase voices from the “Land of Song”.
The Inner Voices, a Cardiff-based a capella group and choir, sing during the end credits of Man Vs Baby, in which Atkinson – known to many as Mr Bean – plays house-sitter Trevor Bingley.
Set at Christmas, Bingley is looking after a Swiss oligarch’s flat in Mayfair, London – but unintentionally ends up by himself with a baby to care for.
“It’s our goal to run the best a capella groups in the world, and have that come from Wales, a place that’s always had such a singing tradition,” said James Taylor, who co-created The Inner Voices.
The Inner Voices
Cardiff-based The Inner Voices was founded in 2022
Mr Taylor founded the 16-member group in 2022 with Charlie Pittaway, and the pair featured in Netflix’s Sex Education, which was filmed in Wales.
He said, after that experience, they “always wanted to do something similar”.
“A lot of recording stuff can be quite London-based a lot of the time,” he said, adding that the appearance on Man Vs Baby was “a good opportunity for us as a Welsh group to really put our voices out there”.
Of their experience on Man Vs Baby, he said when they received the phone call it was “amazing”.
“We not only sang on it but wrote the vocal arrangement as well, which was exciting,” he added.
Man Vs Baby, a sequel to the 2022 series Man Vs Bee, sees Bingley swap house-sitting for a new life as a school caretaker – before receiving a lucrative offer to look after a luxury penthouse in London.
But on the last day of the school term, no one collects a baby who starred as baby Jesus in the nativity play, leaving Bingley responsible.
Speaking on BBC’s Graham Norton Show, Atkinson said: “Trevor is a genuinely sweet man, and that’s relatively rare actually in the characters I’ve played.
“Mr Bean is a selfish, self-centred, anarchic child. He’s quite a charmless character.
Atkinson also described his character Edmund Blackadder as “quite a sarcastic, sardonic, humorously negative sort of guy”.
“Even Jonny English, the comedy spy – he’s vain, self-centred, and doesn’t care about anyone else.
“Trevor is a pleasant contrast,” he said.