ARMED AND CLUELESS ROWAN ATKINSON'S 'JOHNNY ENGLISH' STOOPS TO CONQUER U.S. BOX OFFICE.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

Ian Fleming's Agent 007 would rather have been eviscerated, beheaded and subjected to unspeakable torture than be caught on tape dancing embarrassingly in his skivvies to the music of ABBA.

Agent Johnny English, by sharp contrast, has about as much shame as ... well ... as Rowan Atkinson, the man who plays him.

``Some of the most tacky and childish ideas are sometimes ... mine,'' admits Atkinson, whose on-screen degradation in the film ``Johnny English'' sinks to even baser depths than the aforementioned skivvy dance.

If you've seen the previews, you probably know about the tie caught in the revolving sushi tray, the ill-timed ejector seat and perhaps even English infiltrating a fortress through a toilet, emerging covered in filth.

``Johnny English,'' a box-office hit internationally, may not yet be the franchise that the James Bond series is, but the bumbling British Secret Service agent is certainly a known commodity. The film, directed by Peter Howitt, was born of a popular credit-card campaign that saw English and intrepid partner Bough (pronounced Boff) establishing, time and again, that the Barclaycard could spring a bloke out of any scrape imaginable.

``The first one was set in Moscow. My character thought he had discovered a mole in the British embassy in Moscow,'' recalls Atkinson. ``It turned out the guy he has hanging upside down with a bag over his head happens to be the British ambassador. All he'd done was asked for a replacement Barclay card. The whole thing was a monumental cock-up.''

Monumental ``cock-ups'' are pretty much the order of the day for English, a desk jockey pressed into service when all of Britain's top secret agents get roasted at a funeral. It falls to English and Bough (played by comedian Ben Miller) to recover the stolen Crown Jewels and foil a nation-dominating plot by the dastardly Frenchman Pascal Sauvage (John Malkovich).

Crude salty humor notwithstanding, this isn't supposed to be Austin Powers redux. Peter Sellers' inept Inspector Clouseau of the ``Pink Panther'' films is a more natural English precursor, although Atkinson maintains that his character actually has some real abilities.

``(English) is not a bad agent,'' insists Atkinson, despite much on- screen evidence to the contrary. ``He's quite good at driving a car and good with guns. He's not very good with women, but he's quite good at most things. The problem is there's a shortfall between the reality and the expectation, and that's where the comedy lies.''

Quiet and congenial during an interview at a Beverly Hills hotel, Atkinson, 48, is as philosophical as his character is thick. A native of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, the comedian is practically a household name in his homeland through the exploits - live and animated - of the ``Mr. Bean'' TV series and the BBC ``Blackadder'' series produced with his creative partner and former classmate, Richard Curtis. The 1997 film version of ``Bean'' was released in the U.S. to modest box office. Like ``English,'' the Bean movie was huge internationally.

``The whole world knows who Rowan is,'' says Australian pop star Natalie Imbruglia, who plays another agent and English's love interest in the film. ``I think he has a gift. He works very hard, and I'm not taking anything away from his study of comedy and acting. When you combine his effort with that kind of a gift, that's when you have a genius.''

American audiences have largely seen the comedian in smaller roles: the tongue-tied minister in ``Four Weddings and a Funeral,'' the tyrannical leading man to Jeff Goldblum's second banana in ``The Tall Guy'' and as part of Jerry Zucker's ``Rat Race'' ensemble.

If Atkinson doesn't enjoy the same popularity here that he does overseas, the comedian believes it's largely due to the difficulties of penetrating the American small-screen market.

``You're less interested in imported product. You are self-sufficient in entertainment whereas no other country in the world is,'' he says. ``Probably the country where Mr. Bean is known the least is the United States.''

We Yanks do, however, know from Bond. And we ``get'' the concept of the monarchy and all that it represents. So while pants-ing the Archbishop of Canterbury during a coronation scene may not have quite the same laugh value with the rest of the world as it does with Brits, chances are most everyone will catch on. (And remember: The film's target audience is 8- to 12-year-olds).

``People understand the idea of kings, queens, princes and princesses; it appears to be an outmoded, medieval and completely irrational institution. Nevertheless, people understand how it works,'' says Atkinson. ``So a plot that is based around both that and the British Secret Service is liable to at least have an understanding in America and most countries in the world. Then after that, it's just a matter of what jokes you want.''

``We were deliberately trying not to send up Bond for obvious reasons,'' adds co-screenwriter Neal Purvis, who, with writing partner Robert Wade, wrote the real 007 outings ``The World Is Not Enough'' and ``Die Another Day.'' ``Johnny English is more of a fantasist in that he wants to be a great agent. When he gets the opportunity, he runs riot.''

Atkinson considers himself something of a perfectionist, a trait that doesn't always make working especially pleasurable. The spy shenanigans of English - which also saw Atkinson performing the majority of his own stunts - were fun to engage in, but the comedian wasn't able to entirely let go.

His favorite part of the filmmaking process is what he calls the creative ``bookends'': spitballing ideas with the writers and editors.

``I find it very difficult to please myself,'' he says. ``I worry about things hugely and I'm a bit of a misery, I think, to have on set.

``The director of this film (Peter Howitt), who is an old friend, told me, 'You know, you're bloody difficult to be with. You're so hard on yourself because you're never satisfied, which means the director thinks he's done a bad job because you're not happy.' I could sort of see his point of view.''

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

Facts behind that face

The dark-haired, bug-eyed and jug-eared Rowan Atkinson is one of England's few bankable stars. A few vitals:

Born: January 1955, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England.

Family: Married to Sunetra Sastry. They have two children.

Educated: Earned a master's degree in engineering at Oxford, where he also met writing partner/collaborator Richard Curtis.

TV: Founding member of the BBC's ``Not the Nine O'clock News'' team. ``Blackadder,'' ``Mr. Bean'' and ``The Thin Blue Line.''

Films: ``Scooby-Doo,'' ``Rat Race,'' ``The Tall Guy,'' ``Four Weddings and a Funeral,'' ``Bean,'' ``The Lion King.''

Taste in humor: ``I love clever humor, but I also love jokes where people get a load of poo thrown on them from a great height.''

- Evan Henerson

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) The NAME is English

Rowan Atkinson wants Americans to bond with his spy comedy

(2 -- 4) no caption (Rowan Atkinson)

Box:

Facts behind the face (see text)