Mr. Bean Goes to Town

"Mr. Bean Goes to Town" is the fourth episode of the television series Mr. Bean that originally aired on ITV on 15 October 1991.^[1]

Plot

Act 1

Bean has just bought a portable television for his flat. When he arrives home he finds that he cannot open his car door, as the box is strapped to his car, so he crawls out through the window. He then gets the television out of its box, and it takes him a while to realise that he has it back to front and that the plug needs to be wired (which he mysteriously manages to do by simply screwing the flex in). Once he has successfully powered it up, he finds that he cannot position the aerial to get good reception. When he discovers that he can only get reception if he sits in a part of the room where he cannot see the screen (even if he turns the television to face him), he is distraught. Ingeniously, he strips down, covers up with the TV's cardboard packaging container, and assembles his clothes — underwear and all — on the chair, and he finally gets a clear picture – just before his pre-paid electricity meter runs out, much to his annoyance.

Act 2

Bean tries out his new Polaroid camera in Battersea Park, but it is stolen by a passer-by (Nick Hancock) when he asks him to take his photo. Although Bean chases down and stops the man by putting a rubbish bin over his head and stabbing him with a pencil, he gets away again as Bean tries to alert a passing police officer. Later, Bean is at the police station being asked to identify the man in a police line-up. However, he only successfully identifies the man after he subjects the entire line to a pencil-stabbing test while the suspects are all wearing bins over their heads.

Act 3

Bean gets an itch in his foot while in the town, so he takes off his shoe and sock to scratch it. But he puts his shoe on the roof of a parked Mazda. The car drives away, leaving Bean to hop through the town to find it. He briefly stops at a shoe shop and tries to buy only one shoe from a pair that fits him, but spots the Mazda and gives chase until he finally retrieves his shoe, saying "Thank you" to the driver.

Act 4

Bean stops at a shop window and combs his hair whilst looking at his reflection, before going to the I.D. photo booth, where he takes pictures of himself. It takes only a few seconds, and his pictures are released after he slaps the machine, which is revealed to be showing his back to check his haircut.

Act 5

Come the evening, Bean goes out with his girlfriend, Irma, to a club. First, they watch a magic show. Bean was confused into going on stage when a pretty girl named Monique brings him to it. He deliberately messes up the magic act in an attempt to retrieve his watch that a magician named Eddie Spangle "stole" as part of a trick, therefore, much to Irma's embarrassment. Once he has found it, he finds that Irma has vanished. Bean leaves the magic show and then enters the disco, where he finds Irma. Bean tries to dance with her, but she is still angry at him, so she has decided to dance with another man instead. In the hope that Irma will dance with him again, Bean then asks the DJ to change to romantic music; however, when Bean sees her and the man hugging, he leaves the disco heartbroken, but unwilling to let them best him, Bean shuts off the power on his way out.

On his way home Bean passes a window display of television sets, which individually lose their picture just as he passes them; even while sticking his arm out after the credits.

Continuity

This is the first time we see Mr. Bean's flat, though he appears to move to a different one between episodes, thus implying he may be renting them. The writers allude to Bean being more than just a social anomaly when they demonstrate that he seems to have a mysterious effect on television reception, although he does not seem to have this effect on any televisions in subsequent episodes. Act 5 has Mr. Bean taking his girlfriend to a venue called "Club Phut". In the episode The Return of Mr. Bean, he walks past a wall, which has the word "PHUT!" spray painted on it.

This is the second of three episodes to feature Irma Gobb, Bean's neglected girlfriend.

Production

Film, instead of videotape, is now used for outdoor scenes. Paul Weiland is the film director, while John Birkin is the videotape director. Sue Vertue is the producer. The producer-director tandem of Vertue and Birkin would also collaborate on later Mr. Bean episodes. The threesome also collaborated on The Trouble with Mr. Bean and Mr. Bean Rides Again, both of which were also released in 1991. The opening titles now feature the street scene and the music has been re-recorded, although when first released to VHS the opening titles were not included. This is the first episode to be produced and broadcast in stereo.

Casting

This episode features cameo appearances of music composer Howard Goodall and writer Robin Driscoll. Nick Hancock, who plays the thief in this episode will return for the role of the train conductor in Mr. Bean Rides Again. Real life magician Alan Shaxon appears as Eddie Spangle, the magician Bean and his girlfriend go to see at Club Phut.

Broadcast and reception

Mr Bean Goes to Town was first broadcast by the ITV network on Tuesday 15 October 1991. The day after its first broadcast, Thames Television (which commissioned and presented Mr. Bean) learned it would lose its ITV broadcast franchise at the end of December 1992.

14.42 million viewers watched this episode on the original transmission.

Censors

In Act 1 the scene when Mr. Bean pushes wires into a plug and removed pants then underwear was cut when broadcast on Nickelodeon UK and Disney Channel.

Legacy

Act 1 inspired an episode of Mr. Bean, The Animated Series called "Big TV". The photograph scene from Act 2 inspired a similar act in the animated series episode "Chocks Away", where Mr. Bean distracts a guard in the toy store by taking a photograph of him before retrieving the propeller for his remote control aeroplane.

The police station scene in Act 2 inspired the Mr. Bean: The Animated Series episode named In the Pink when Mr. Bean is asked to identify the two fraudsters in a line-up.

References

External links

• "Mr. Bean Goes to Town" at the Internet Movie Database