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 saxophone and wants to drop some change in his saxophone case. When he finds he has no change, he places his handkerchief on the ground and dances in a rather silly way to the saxophone music; a woman stops by and leaves him a coin, which he then transfers to the saxophonist's case.

Act 2

Bean tries out his new American Express charge card at Allders department store. After appearing to suffocate whilst going through the perfume department, he does his shopping by first testing everything he wants to buy — he opens and uses a toothbrush, 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 dialing 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; Bean pick-pockets the man and gets his card back (instead of speaking with the man, of course), but his hand gets stuck, and the man unwittingly pulls him all the way into a toilet stall. In the toilet stall, he frees his hand but finds that he is stuck. 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

Bean goes to a restaurant on his birthday and orders a steak tartare (after gifting a birthday card to himself), which he expected to be a real steak. Disgusted by the taste and appearance of the steak, he cuts it up and hides the pieces in different places (ashtray, tiny flower vase, sugar bowl, hollowed-out roll, under a plate, violinist's trousers, woman's handbag). The violinist walks in towards Bean's table and playing "Happy Birthday" for him and then the violinist playing infinite tune until Bean eats. Conveniently, a waiter (Roger Lloyd-Pack) walks by and spills his tray all over Bean's table, which provides him with an opportunity to cover up his actions by showing the waiter and the maitre d' that the tartar has ended up inside the vase, inside his bread, under his plate, in the violinist's trousers, and in the woman's handbag. The maitre d' apologises and promptly moves Bean to another table as he pretends to complain about the incident. Reseated, the waiter brings out another dish which, unfortunately for Bean, is another steak tartare, bigger than the first. The pressure is on for him to finish it, as the maitre d', the waiter and the violinist are now all watching him.

Act 4

Bean is waiting to meet Queen Elizabeth at a royal premiere 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 and using a loose thread from an usherette(played by Matilda Ziegler who will later play his girlfriend in the people and cartoon versions)'s uniform to floss his teeth. The thread gets stuck though in between Bean's teeth, but eventually he yanks it out), but when he uses his trouser zip to clean his fingernail, the zip gets stuck and he only manages to force it back up just before the Queen greets him. Preparing for a bow, he accidentally headbutts the Queen, who is knocked to the floor. During the confusion, Bean leaves.

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

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, Surrey.

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 saxophone-playing busker Bean dances to. Composer and actor Steve McNicholas also appears as a violin player.

Censors

In Act 2 The scene when Mr. Bean stands on top of the escalators was edited out of Nickelodeon UK.

Legacy

Act 4 is the opposite of a later Mr. Bean, The Animated Series episode called "Royal Bean", but Act 3 did inspire several shorts such as "Restaurant" and "Hot Date". Act 3 also inspired the restaurant scene in Mr. Bean's Holiday, although the ending was slightly altered.

References

External links

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