British comedian Ben Miller is best know as one half of the stand-up double act Armstrong & Miller. A veteran of Channel 4 television, Miller has made several film appearances, including "The Parole Officer", "Birthday Girl", and "There's Only One Jimmy Grimble". His latest role is playing Bough alongside Rowan Atkinson's bumbling spy, Johnny English.

Everyone says Rowan Atkinson is a perfectionist. What was it like working with him?

He definitely is but I think I am too, so I really responded to that. I've watched Rowan for years and I've always thought, "How does he do that?" The answer is: 1) He's a genius; and 2) He works very, very hard. He does a lot of preparation, he's meticulous, and he's got an amazing understanding of the script and the character. Basically, he's no slouch!

Did you feel you were coming late to this, after all those credit card adverts?

I didn't feel it was a disadvantage. I didn't want to copy anything from the adverts.

John Malkovich's French accent has to be the worst ever...

John was such fun. He does actually live in France. The amazing thing about him is that he's a force of nature. I don't think I ever saw him do the same line twice. It's that American thing, he's not in character; he is the character. To begin with, when they told me he'd be playing the villain, I was like "Who? John Malkovich?" But when I thought about it after reading the script, I realised it was actually a brilliant idea.

It's a very British film. Do you think American audiences will get it?

The American audiences are going to love the whole anti-French thing, just simply as a bizarre coincidence. The whole film makes a lot of fun of the French, particularly in terms of the French taking over England. And since the diplomatic wrangles between the French and the US, I think that'll hit a nerve. Possibly the film may not go down as well in France!

Rowan's a huge star in America...

He's a huge star all over the world. It really came home to me when we were shooting on location and Rowan and I were driving. We pulled up by a park that was full of foreign language students. One of them spotted Rowan and it was like watching a flock of birds take off! Basically just hundreds and thousands of foreign language students started running towards us, shouting "Meester Bean, Meester Bean, Meester Bean!" I thought we were going to be killed - killed by comedy enthusiasm. But that kind of affection for him is all over the world. These were people who clearly couldn't speak English and they loved him!