Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean

"Merry Christmas Mr. Bean" is the seventh episode of the television series Mr. Bean, and was aired as a Christmas Special as part of ITV's 1992 Christmas schedule. The episode features a story consisting of inter-linked sketches, including a scene in which Mr. Bean gets a large turkey stuck on his head. The episode was the final one to be written by Richard Curtis, and the last to be presented by Thames Television; subsequent repeats and future episodes of the programme would be later commissioned and presented by Central Independent Television. The episode was originally broadcast on 29 December 1992,^[3] and was produced by Tiger Television.^[4][5]

Plot

Act 1: Christmas Shopping

Seeking to prepare for the big day, Mr. Bean ventures into town on Christmas Eve and visits Harrods to look for some Christmas decorations, harassing a man dressed as Father Christmas on the way in by pulling on his false beard.^[6] Inside the shop, he proceeds to test two different types of baubles, going with one that bounces off the ground after the other one simply smashes on the floor. He then looks to test out some Christmas lights, and managing to get into a storeroom while an employee is busy dealing with a customer, tries it out on a socket being used for the store's exterior lights, plunging the exterior into darkness for a short while. As the employee sorts out his purchases, Bean spots the shop's Nativity scene display and proceeds to play around with it and some nearby toys, first by making some of the figurines shush anything that could wake the baby Jesus, having a shepherd figurine round up some toy sheep, and then having two toy tanks and a toy Dalek battle with a toy T-rex, eventually having the little baby Jesus figurine airlifted by an angel attached to a magnet hanging down from a toy helicopter to the bedroom of a doll house alongside his parent's figurines. His fun is soon disrupted by the store manager - introducing a toy policeman into the Nativity scene to halt proceedings - who hands him his purchases and makes him leave the shop.

Following his fun, Bean soon meets up with his girlfriend, Irma Gobb, in the town's Christmas market and is dragged to the shop window of a jeweller's, whereupon she tries to give him the message that she wants a sparkly ring in the display by pointing to a portrait of a couple getting engaged. Bean nods to her, and heads into the shop, delighting Irma. After buying something from the jeweller, Bean spots another man dressed as Father Christmas, and tugs on his beard, only to find it was a real one, and quickly disappears into the crowds. Coming across a Salvation Army brass band performing "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen" at the market, he offers to help the conductor collect money in his bucket, coming across a young pickpocket with a wallet in his hand, thinking he wishes to make a donation, thus forcing him to surrender all the items he stole, include cash and jewellery. Bringing these to the conductor, who decides to check out what he brought back, Bean finds himself conducting the band, and has some fun with them, before having them conduct the same song with an upbeat, jazzy feel to it, earning a big round of applause from the crowd. With the conductor back, Bean attempts to buy a Christmas tree from a stand, only to watch the last two trees being bought up. Wanting a tree, he cuts down the market's large tree and attaches it to the roof of his Mini, driving home with it, with everybody at the market oblivious to the theft.

Act 2: Christmas Eve

Later that night, having set up his stolen Christmas tree with his new lights and his bauble, Bean leans out his window and pushes the rest away, letting it crash onto the street below. He then sets up three stockings in the room – one for Teddy, one for himself, and one for a tiny mouse living in a hole behind some furniture – before writing a few cards and sealing them in envelopes, then stepping outside and posting them to himself. Satisfied with his decoration, Bean searches a cupboard for some Christmas crackers, but is underwhelmed by the lack of a loud pop from one, and so decides to take out the fuses of the other crackers and stuff them all into one to make a "super cracker". Warming up his flat with a fire, enjoying a box of chocolates and drinking a glass of sherry, Bean tries to find something good to watch on TV, only to find nothing interesting. As he turns his TV off, he hears muffled singing coming from his door, whereupon opening it he finds a small group of young carol singers performing "Away in a Manger". Deciding to watch them perform from his seat, Bean soon becomes drowsy, and shuts the door on them just as they finish the song, before heading for bed.

Act 3: Christmas Day

The following morning, Bean wakes up excited to the fact it is Christmas morning, and proceeds to check the stockings – his turns out to a sock of his filled with the other; Teddy's turns out to contain a tin that holds a pair of button eyes within; the mouse's turns out to have a piece of cheese that Bean immediately places onto a mousetrap. That afternoon, Bean gets to work in the kitchen on preparing the large turkey he won at the market, but while stuffing it, his watch comes off and gets lost inside. Unable to find it, Bean sticks his head into the turkey, whereupon he finds himself unable to pull it off just as Irma arrives. After attempting to cover up his predicament from his girlfriend, Irma eventually helps him to remove it, allowing Bean to recover his watch at the cost of losing the turkey.

With not much left for a dinner, the pair proceed to have sandwiches consisting of cranberry sauce along with carrot slices, whereupon Irma refuses to give Bean his present until she gets a Christmas kiss, only for him to outsmart her and cruelly snatch it, ignoring her anger as he finds it to be a model ship. Realising he is being forgetful, Bean produces Irma with her present, only for her excitement to turn into confusion and disappointment when he reveals that he bought her the portrait in the jeweller's display, misunderstanding what she really wanted. Seeing her crying, he recalls he forgot something else for her, and produces a ring box, that she finds to contain a picture hook for the portrait. Irma, upset and angry, storms out of the flat, leaving Bean puzzled. Realising that she cannot pull his super cracker with him, he decides to do it himself, saying "Merry Christmas" to himself as he does so. The scene ends with a view from the street, as a loud bang and a white flash are seen from his window.

Deleted scene

A scene for this episode was cut out for the televised broadcasts, but retained in the retail version, and took place between Bean purchasing a present for Irma and then encountering the second Father Christmas. In the scene, Bean participates in a "guess the weight" competition, with the large turkey from the episode, being the prize, and cheats to win it by using a hidden set of scales below the counter for the competition, alongside a calculator, whereupon the turkey is thrown into the boot of his Mini once he wins it. For unknown reasons, the A&E DVD release (distributed in the US by New Video) does not contain this scene.

Cast

• Rowan Atkinson – Mr. Bean
• Owen Brenman – Store clerk
• Matilda Ziegler – Irma Gobb
• John Warner
• Jonathan Stratt
• C.J. Allen
• Lee Barrett
• Chris Sanders

Production and broadcast

The market scene was shot in Kingston. Merry Christmas, Mr Bean was watched by 18.48 million viewers during the original transmission.

Awards and legacy

After its broadcast on American cable television network HBO, this episode won the 1995 CableACE award for best comedy special.^[1][2]

A number of elements were used as inspiration for other programmes. The 'lights on a well known building being accidentally switched off' gag is used by comedian Peter Kay at the end of his Live at the Top of the Tower DVD, while the turkey scene is considered to have been inspiration for a scene in an episode of Friends entitled "The One with All the Thanksgivings", and later led to an adaptation for a storyline in Mr. Bean, The Animated Series short called "Dinner for Two". The turkey joke was used for the movie Bean, though was cut out and reserved for a special feature section entitled "Deleted Bean".

Censors

The scene where Mr Bean buys the turkey was cut out on some children's channels. The scene where Irma Gobb helps Mr. Bean to get the turkey off was edited out when broadcast on Nickelodeon UK for unknown reason.

References

External links

• "Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean" on IMDb
• "Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean" at TV.com