Rowan Atkinson in hospital following car crash

The comedy actor – best known as the star of Blackadder and Mr Bean and soon to appear in cinemas in spoof spy sequel, Johnny English Reborn – will be considering himself as lucky as an extremely lucky thing after he walked away from the crash with just a minor shoulder injury.

No other vehicles were involved in the incident, which took place on the A605 at Haddon near Peterborough at 7:30pm last night, but according to reports, Atkinson waited with a fellow motorist until an ambulance arrived.

A spokeswoman for Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “Crews brought the fire under control by 8:13pm. They made the vehicle safe and used one hose reel to put out the fire.

“There was one casualty but he was not trapped.”

Atkinson is well known as a lover of fast cars and recently garnered major respect among petrolheads by topping the leaderboard for Top Gear’s Star in a Reasonably Priced Car competition, clocking a record lap time of 1 minute 42.2 seconds.

The McLaren F1 he was driving at the time of the crash is one of the fastest production cars in the world, boasting a top speed of 230mph.

Atkinson is expected to be discharged from hospital later today.