Man Vs Baby sees Rowan Atkinson (Wonka) return as the hapless Trevor Bingley, in a follow-up to 2022’s Man Vs Bee, which didn’t look like it would work, but was brilliant.
Whereas that series ran for a lot of episodes with very short lengths (9 eps at 11 minutes each), this one is a more sensible four, with roughly 25 minutes apiece in length – except for the finale being 35 minutes, as that gives you a break from pressing ‘next episode’ so much, with less of the same repetitive end credits. Still, I think an improvement would be to just make both a 90-minute movie each, and have done with it.
This time round, after being seen growing as a family over the years, Trevor’s now separated from his wife and daughter, they have their own plans for Christmas – given mum now has a rich boyfriend, and he’s getting the sack from his job as a caretaker, with the final job to be helping with the school’s Nativity play.
But his responsibilities aren’t yet over, since after everyone’s gone, and while an infant was left on the school’s doorstep prior to the show – which was then mistaken to be a parent’s child to portray Jesus in the manger, as Trevor’s locking up, he’s literally left holding the baby.
At this point, I could say that since it’s his last day in the job, he wouldn’t be the last one in the building, since to whom is he going to hand the keys over? He’d give them to the headmistress, and she’d pass them on to the new employee in the New Year. But… mere details 😉
On the plus side, Trevor now has a new job, housesitting a hugely expensive mansion apartment for the Christmas period, even while managing to hide the fact he has a kid in tow, making it his real-life Nativity.
Man Vs Baby is not quite as good as Man Vs Bee, and rather too obvious at times, with some of the jokes a bit too choreographed.
However, Rowan is on top form, with his usual, expressive self and relatively little dialogue – and I could argue that as his London-based employer, Susannah Fielding (This Time With Alan Partridge) wouldn’t be leaving him to it with the phrase, “Happy Holidays!”
Oh, and you WILL get WHAMAGEDDONED! 😀
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
Man Vs Baby is on Netflix from today.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but when it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 25-35 minutes per episode (4 episodes)
Release date: December 11th 2025
Studio: Netflix
Format: 2.00:1
Director: David Kerr
Producer: Chris Clark
Writers/Creators: Rowan Atkinson, William Davies
Music: Lorne Balfe
Cast:
Trevor Bingley: Rowan Atkinson
Jess Bingley: Claudie Blakley
Maddy Bingley: Alanah Bloor
Petra: Susannah Fielding
Janet: Ashley Jensen
Georgia Hakopian: Sunetra Sarker
Met Police Officer: Steve Edge
Soren: Angus Imrie
Amethyst: Ellie White
Hayley: Lara Maskell
Annabel: Susy Kane
Lionel: Robert Bathurst
Diana: Nina Sosanya
Pamela: Rosie Cavaliero
DC Eyston: Pippa Duffy
DS Gupta: Sunil Patel
Tom: Michael Dobby
Herr Schwarzenboch: Marco Canadea
Frau Schwarzenboch: Britta Gartner
Postman: Bobby Scott Freeman
Shopkeeper: Jay Kiyani
The Baby: Himself
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.