User:Rowan Bean

Atkinson, the youngest of four brothers, was born in Consett, County Durham, England on 6 January 1955.[6][7][8][9]

His parents were Eric Atkinson, a farmer and company director, and Ella May (née Bainbridge), who married on 29 June 1945.[9] His three older brothers are Paul, who died as an infant; Rodney, a Eurosceptic economist who narrowly lost the United Kingdom Independence Party leadership election in 2000; and Rupert.[10][11]

Atkinson was brought up Anglican,[12] and was educated at Durham Choristers School a preparatory school, St. Bees School, and Newcastle University, where he received a degree in Electrical Engineering.[13] In 1975, he continued for the degree of MSc in Electrical Engineering at The Queen's College, Oxford, the same college where his father matriculated in 1935,[14] and which made Atkinson an Honorary Fellow in 2006.[15]

First winning national attention in the Oxford Revue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 1976,[13] he had already written and performed early sketches for shows in Oxford by the Etceteras – the revue group of the Experimental Theatre Club (ETC), and for the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), meeting writer Richard Curtis,[13] and composer Howard Goodall, with whom he would continue to collaborate during his career.