Mr. Bean (Mr. Bean episode)

"Mr. Bean" is the first episode of the television series Mr. Bean that originally aired on ITV on 1 January 1990.^[2]

Plot

Act 1: The Exam

Mr. Bean is driving to his mathematics exam and he accidentally drives past a Reliant three wheeler, nearly tipping it over (which becomes a running gag throughout the series). Once he arrives at the college, he takes his seat looking awkward. A student (Paul Bown) sitting next to him asks if he did his revision, to which Bean replies that he concentrated on trigonometry. The student says he did calculus, and Bean says that he believes that they concentrated on calculus the previous year, making the student worry. The invigilator announces that the exam will start in two minutes, so Bean prepares himself (and annoys the student in the process) by getting out a pen as well as an obscene amount of spares along with a number of toys, including a Pink Panther doll with its tail between its legs, and finally an alarm clock which he sets up to tell him when the exam finishes. The invigilator finally starts the exam and Bean freaks out when he takes a calculus paper out of his envelope and assumes he studied the wrong subject.

Bean starts to become frustrated as he has no idea what to write down, so he spends most of his two hours trying to copy the other student's work (even going so far as to stealing the paper when the student is distracted at one point), but each attempt ends in failure. Eventually, he just gives up and cries out "Oh mummy!" before putting his head on the desk and sleeping for the remainder of the exam time.

Two minutes towards the end, the invigilator gives instructions on what the students are to do with the papers when they are finished. From this, Bean realizes that there were two papers in the envelope: a green calculus paper, and a white trigonometry paper, with each student given a choice as to which to study (although the invigilator should have stated this before the exam started). Bean takes it out of the envelope and frantically tries to complete it in a hurried fashion, but his pen will not write anything so he grabs the pen out of the other student's hand (forgetting about the many spares that he came prepared with). The invigilator then tells everyone to stop writing, but Bean keeps going determined to finish the exam. The invigilator again tells him to stop but Bean continues and he finally stops when the invigilator angrily asks him to do so. At that moment, his alarm clock goes off and the first act ends as he tries to silence it.

Act 2: The Beach

Bean goes to the beach at Peacehaven and has to change into his swimming trunks without exposing himself to a nearby man (Roger Sloman) wearing sunglasses. Bean feels that the journey back up the steep steps from the beach would not be worthwhile, so he devises a plan that involves putting on the trunks over the trousers that he is wearing, and pulling one side of the trousers through the trunks so that he never becomes naked. The plan works, and just as Bean is about to have a swim, he observes the man grabbing his white cane and leaving, revealing that the whole time he was actually blind.

Act 3: The Church

After a parking altercation, once again involving the blue Reliant, Bean attends a church service at Stanmer Church. He arrives as the opening hymn is being sung, and he asks Mr. Sprout if he can borrow his hymnbook. Mr. Sprout gives it to him, but just as Bean is about to start singing, the hymn finishes. As the vicar off-screen gives his sermon, Bean loudly sneezes and uses the lining of his coat pocket to wipe his nose due to a lack of tissues or a handkerchief. Then, he becomes increasingly bored and starts to fall asleep, much to the annoyance of Mr. Sprout.

To keep himself awake, Bean tries put a sweet in his mouth without being seen. He ends up dropping it down his shirt before a hymn and when Mr. Sprout refuses to share his hymnbook with him again, he does not know the words and is only able to sing gibberish and "Alleluia" on the choruses (albeit off-key). He manages to drop the sweet through his shirt and trousers onto the ground and picks it up, but when he tries to put it in his mouth a final time, Sprout turns around and Bean accidentally puts it into the pocket that he used to wipe his nose on. On the way home, Bean takes a wrong turn and crashes his Mini.

Continuity

This episode introduced a running gag involving Bean's altercations with a blue Reliant Regal the driver of which is never revealed. In this episode the gags link one act to another and also lead into the credits. Firstly Bean overtakes the Regal, pulling in front at a very close distance. The Reliant driver panics and steers off, almost toppling the vehicle.

Later, Bean drives straight at the Reliant on the road leading to the beach. The Reliant driver ends up swerving into a ditch to avoid a collision. At the church, Bean selects a parking space on a field, coincidentally the space is already occupied by the Reliant, which is forced onto the road. Bean, seemingly confused as to how the vehicle got there, runs off.

On the car ride home while the credits roll, Bean takes a wrong turn and (though unseen) crashes his Mini. The blue Reliant three-wheeler car (which Bean has assaulted throughout the episode) sees the car crash and goes in the opposite direction. Just seconds after the Reliant goes off, a wheel from the Mini bounces off a sign and onto the road while Bean then walks by unharmed anyway. He then jogs after the Reliant.

The sweet stuck in Bean's coat pocket would later be used as paste for a postage stamp in "Mr. Bean Rides Again".

Cast

• Paul Bown as Student
• Rudolph Walker as Invigilator
• Roger Sloman as Blind man
• Howard Goodall as Church organist
• Richard Briers as Mr. Sprout

Production

The episode was first broadcast on 1 January 1990. Being the pilot, this episode was simply called "Mr. Bean". Its original opening and end titles did not feature the choral music or street/spotlight theme which introduced future episodes. The titles were superimposed over Bean's journey to the college and subsequent crash at the end of the episode. Another major difference was that Bean's Mini was orange as opposed to the more familiar green that was used for other episodes. For the remastered Region 1 and 20th Anniversary Region 2 DVD versions, the opening titles were removed and the regular titles added. This was the only episode written by Ben Elton.

Casting

Rudolph Walker plays the exam invigilator. He and Rowan Atkinson would later go on to co-star in The Thin Blue Line.^[3] There is a cameo appearance by theme music composer Howard Goodall as the church organist. As well as Bean, Atkinson performs the voice role of the vicar, giving an apparently gibberish sermon.

Music

The hymn sung at the church service is "All Creatures of Our God and King" and the hymn sung as Bean enters the church is Eternal Father, Strong to Save.

Broadcast and reception

13.45 million viewers watched this episode on the original transmission.

Awards and legacy

This episode won the 1990 Golden Rose award.^[1][2] The church service sketch was also performed live by Atkinson (and Angus Deayton) on tour, including in Boston, 1991. "Ray of Sunshine" from Mr. Bean, The Animated Series was inspired by Act 2.

Censors

The scene of Act 2 where Mr. Bean removes his trousers after putting on his swimming trunks was cut out for the broadcasts on Disney Channel.

References

External links

• "Mr. Bean" at the Internet Movie Database