Warning: minor Man vs. Bee spoilers ahead.

Of all the crazy scenarios in the new Rowan Atkinson comedy series Man vs. Bee, perhaps the most indelible is the scene in which his character, Trevor, slides face first into a pile of doggy diarrhea.

The gag is set up right in the first episode. Homeowners Nina (Jing Lusi) and Christian (Julian Rhind-Tutt) warn house sitter Trevor that their dog, Cupcake, should only be fed his specialty dog food. Of course, Cupcake eats something he shouldn’t, and everyone pays the price.

We won’t spoil how Trevor ends up covered in poop, but Atkinson and the crew put a lot of thought into it, according to Man vs. Bee writer, co-creator and executive producer Will Davies. 

“It was an incredibly complex and involved procedure involving a lot of adults spending a lot of time doing something that you can't believe they were doing,” Davies tells Tudum, laughing.

“The props team did spend a long time coming up with different versions [of poo]. Now, Rowan has experimented in other movies — there was a Johnny English movie — where there was also quite a lot of poo in it. So, he had quite a lot of experience when it came to that,” Davies explains. “They would bring in bowls of poo of different consistencies and colors, which Rowan would inspect with the rest of us. There were about five or six alternative mixes and colors. And then it was brought down to two. And, of the two, I think one was on the floor and a different one was used when Rowan's face appeared.”

Turns out the doggy diarrhea was actually a face mask manipulated by makeup designer Vicky Voller. 

“I bought loads of children’s paints because it might go in his eyes or mouth or nose, and mixed up about five different colors — yellow, green, black, brown and gold for a yellowish dog poo color. Then I added some water, so it wouldn’t crack, and olive oil to add a bit of shine,” Voller says.

It wasn’t just the look that had to be right. The texture had to be correct, too.

“Rowan is so technical about comedy,” Davies explains. “It really was a question of how wet would it have been at this moment. And when was it laid? How long has it been on his face?”

“He's always like that about jokes, because these nine- to ten-minute episodes, they have a rhythm and a flow. We knew that Cupcake was going to have this sort of peanut allergy because there was a gag earlier on. And then Rowan followed through that line of thinking and how might that play out. So, there was a certain inevitability once we established ‘gag A’ that eventually we'd get to ‘gag B.’ ”

Atkinson’s attention to doodie detail wasn’t just on set.

“Rowan is incredibly technical all the way through post[production],” Davies continues. “With the sound, he was like, ‘What sound would his face make as it slides through it? How wet should that sound be? How sticky should that sound be?’ It's really policed very closely.”

Who knew poo was such a to-do? Or, should we say, to doo-doo?

Fortunately, there is one sense the crew wasn’t concerned about.

“There was no olfactory component,” says Davies with a smile. And we’re sure everyone on set was grateful.

Man vs. Bee premieres on June 24.

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