When a lucrative offer to house-sit for millionaires over Christmas break comes his way, a bumbling divorced school caretaker jumps at the chance to make a little extra cash. But things take a complicated turn when, on the last day of school, the caretaker is forced to take a lost baby along on his holiday house-sitting adventure.
Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean, Johnny English, Blackadder) returns as Trevor Bingley in a four-episode Christmas special starring Man vs. Bee’s self-sabotaging hero. Man vs. Baby was written by Atkinson and Will Davies and directed by David Kerr, the original Man vs. Bee creative team. The fish-out-of-water comedy also stars Robert Bathurst (Downton Abbey), Nina Sosanya (W1A) and Susannah Fielding (Who Is Erin Carter?).
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After his disastrous house-sitting experience in Man vs. Bee, Trevor Bingley (Atkinson) swears off the niche industry forever, and instead becomes a local school caretaker in a quaint English village after his divorce. He’s thrilled about the upcoming Christmas break so he can see Maddy (Bloor), his daughter and Jess (Blakeley), his ex-wife, but Trevor’s luck is about to take a turn for the worse. Jess calls to let him know that she and Maddy are going to Barbados for the holidays with Jess’s new rich boyfriend. And Jess also reminds Trevor that their daughter’s uni tuition in Paris next year starts at £10,000. Trevor, disappointed by his canceled Christmas plans, heads to school for the children’s nativity play on what’s supposed to be the last day of the term, only to find out it’s his last day at the school as well.
Now unemployed, on the brink of eviction from his terrible flat, and wondering how he’s going to pay for his daughter’s tuition, Trevor decides to solve one problem at a time. First, he’s gotta run the stage crew for the best nativity play in school history — one of the parents even dropped off their baby to play Jesus in the manger. In the middle of the play, Trevor gets a call from the new owners of Housesitters Deluxe, the company he swore he’d never work for again after Man vs. Bee. It’s an offer Trevor simply can’t refuse: £10,000 to watch a millionaire’s London penthouse over Christmas break. All Trevor has to do is make it to London by 5 p.m. that same day for the interview. Finally, it seems like Trevor’s catching a break — but when the nativity play wraps up and no one returns for baby Jesus, Trevor realizes his unexpected holiday adventure just got a teeny, tiny plus one. Despite Trevor’s best efforts to get the child to social services before he leaves for London, he’s forced to take the baby to his interview, and what happens from there is pure Christmas chaos.
No, Man vs. Baby is not based on a book. The Christmas special is a continuation of Man vs. Bee, a Netflix series that premiered in 2022 starring an original Rowan Atkinson character.
Man vs. Baby takes place in London.
