The Return of Mr. Bean

"The Return of Mr. Bean" is the second episode of the television series Mr. Bean that originally aired on ITV on 5 November 1990. It was produced by Tiger Television.^[1]

Plot

Act 1

Bean sees a busker playing a tenor saxophone and wants to drop some change in his saxophone case, falsely thinking that giving him change will allow him access to the nearby tunnel. When he finds that he has no change (and avoids using a paper bill), he places a handkerchief on the ground and dances in a rather silly way to the music. Eventually, an elderly woman stops by and leaves him a coin, which he then transfers into the busker's saxophone case and proceeds to walk through the tunnel.

Act 2

Bean goes to Allders department store to try out his new American Express charge card. After appearing to suffocate whilst going through the perfume department, he does his shopping by first testing everything he wants to buy—first he gets a toothbrush out of its packet and uses it (then puts it back on the shelf in the opened packet and takes another one), tries on a bath towel, peels a potato with a peeler he wants to buy, and pulls a large fish out of his pocket to see if it fits on a frying pan.

He also chooses the telephone from the receptionist's desk as the one he wants and takes it with him, plug and all, because it was the only phone that gave a dialling tone when picked up; he assumed the other phones (disconnected display models) were broken. At the register, he accidentally swaps cards with another man (Paul McDowell) who has the same kind of card as him; instead of simply speaking to the man, Bean pickpockets him and gets his card back, but his hand gets stuck, and the man unwittingly pulls Bean all the way into a toilet stall. In the toilet stall, he frees his hand but finds that he is trapped.

The man then notices that there is no toilet paper on the roll and looks for some without noticing Bean. Bean, however, sees a new roll of toilet paper on the floor and offers it to the man, who accepts it gratefully but then stands up in horror. Bean smiles nervously at the man.

Act 3: The Restaurant

Bean goes to a fancy restaurant on his birthday, and after gifting a birthday card to himself and feigning surprise upon opening and reading it, he orders a steak tartare, which he expects to be a regular steak. A waiter then comes by and offers Bean a sample of the house wine. After drinking it, the waiter goes to pour some more, but Bean declines stating that he is "driving". The maitre d' places a napkin over Bean's lap and Bean then proceeds to show off the napkin by copying what the maitre d' did, only to lose it when it flies across to a neighboring table. When the woman at the other table picks it up, Bean puts a part of the table cloth onto his lap to pretend that it is not his.

The waiter returns with Bean's order, and Bean gives him some money to pay for his meal. The waiter accepts the money, thinking it is a tip and leaves Bean to eat. He is confused at the steak's appearance, and tastes it, but is disgusted by it. So in order to avoid eating it and not wanting to upset the restaurant staff, he cuts it up and hides the pieces in different places around his table; first an ashtray, then a tiny flower vase, then a hollowed-out bread roll, then under a plate, and finally a sugar bowl.

A violinist walks in towards Bean's table and plays "Happy Birthday" for him, and then plays another tune continuously until Bean eats a piece of the steak. As soon as the violinist turns his back, a disgusted Bean spits it down the man's trousers. Then while the neighboring woman is distracted by the violinist, Bean takes her handbag and starts putting pieces of the steak into it. But as he tries to place it back under her table, the waiter walks by and stumbles over Bean's outstretched leg, causing him to spill a tray of food all over Bean's table.

As the maitre d' arrives to help, Bean seizes the opportunity to cover up his actions by showing the waiter and the maitre d' that the accident caused the tartare to end up inside the vase, inside his bread roll, under his plate, in the violinist's trousers, and the woman's handbag. The maitre d' apologises and moves Bean to another table while he pretends to complain about the accident. Reseated, the waiter brings out a free meal which, unfortunately for Bean, is another steak tartare, seemingly bigger than the first. Now with the waiter, maitre d', and violinist all watching him, Bean reluctantly must finish it.

Act 4

Bean is waiting to meet Queen Elizabeth at a royal première at the Odeon Leicester Square cinema, but is quite unprepared (his nails and teeth are dirty, his breath smells, and his shoes are unpolished). He manages to rectify most of these problems to his satisfaction: using spit to polish his shoes, a breath freshener to keep his breath from smelling bad, folding back the corners of a postcard to serve as a pocket handkerchief (after trying unsuccessfully to steal another man's (Robin Driscoll) pocket handkerchief), and using a loose thread from an usherette's (played by Matilda Ziegler, who will later play Bean's girlfriend) uniform to floss his teeth.

The thread gets stuck between Bean's teeth, but eventually he yanks it out and briefly turns around to scream in pain. He then uses the fly of his trousers to clean his fingernails, and as soon as he finished, the Queen arrives and begins to greet the line of guests. At first he is excited, but then he realises he forgot to zip up the fly in his trousers. He then starts to panic when the fly gets stuck, and he makes things worse for himself when he shoves his hand down the front of his trousers and attempts to use his finger to pull it up, only for his finger to get stuck and sticking out.

He frantically manages to free his finger and zip up his trousers just as the Queen finishes greeting the man next to him. As the Queen greets Bean, he attempts to bow to her, but ends up headbutting her and knocks her to the ground. As guests and security rush to help her up, Bean makes a run for the exit.

Continuity

When Mr. Bean walks towards the busker in Act 1, amongst the graffiti scribbled on the wall is seen the word "PHUT!" This is the name of the club Bean takes his girlfriend to in the episode "Mr. Bean Goes to Town".

This episode lies between Bean crashing his orange Mini at the end of "Mr. Bean" and the first appearance of his green Mini in "The Curse of Mr. Bean". Bean is not seen driving at all in this episode (although at the restaurant, he turns down a second glass of wine by saying that he is driving).

Production

This is the first episode to feature the 'Bean falling from sky' opening and the theme tune (Ecce homo qui est faba) performed by the Choir of Southwark Cathedral.^[2]

The location of Allders in this episode is Sutton, London.

Casting

Matilda Ziegler, who later plays Bean's girlfriend Irma Gobb, appears as a waitress at the royal premiere scene. Rowan Atkinson performs two roles in this episode, the second being a voice over news reporter at the beginning of Act 4.

Jazz saxophonist Dave O'Higgins appears as the tenor saxophone-playing busker Bean dances to. Composer and actor Steve McNicholas also appears as a violinist.

Cast

• Rowan Atkinson as Bean
• Dave O'Higgins as Busker
• Paul McDowell as Customer
• William Van Dyck as Checkout manager
• John Junkin as Maitre d'
• Roger Lloyd-Pack as Waiter
• Steve McNicholas as Violinist
• Matilda Ziegler as Waitress
• Robin Driscoll as Cinema manager
• Tina Maskall as Royal

Censors

In Act 2, the scene when Mr. Bean stands on top of the escalators was edited out of Nickelodeon UK. On Disney Channel Asia, the part where the man in the bathroom stall pulled his pants down before sitting down on the toilet was cut due to half-nudity. The part where the man next to Mr. Bean bows in front of the queen was cut for unknown reason.

References

External links

• "The Return of Mr. Bean" at the Internet Movie Database