Goodnight Mr. Bean

"Goodnight Mr. Bean" is the thirteenth episode of the television series Mr. Bean that first aired on ITV on 31 October 1995.^[1] It was produced by Tiger Aspect Productions.

Plot

Act 1

Bean is forced to go to hospital, after getting his hand stuck in a teapot. He drives in and parks directly behind an ambulance, blocking the rear doors in the process. Inside, Bean gets impatient while waiting in the queue, and cheats his way to the front by first throwing a child's doll and then starting a fight between two men. After Bean takes the numbered ticket from the counter, he races towards the last remaining chair in the waiting room, sitting down just in time to prevent a frail old man from sitting there.

Bean sees his ticket numbered 76 while the digital counter shows 23. Just as Bean checks the time on his watch, he inadvertently reveals his hand stuck in the teapot, prompting the woman at the counter and a seriously-injured patient sitting next to him (with head wrapped in bandages, and an arm and a leg in plaster) to laugh at him.

Then he steals a lower-numbered ticket (52) from the severely-injured patient and sneakily overturns a digital counter (so that 25 looks like 52). But the seriously injured patient thwarts Bean by holding the handle of the teapot on his hand, and the digital counter is returned to normal after patients complain of being overlooked. Some time later, Bean falls asleep in waiting and as the digital counter reaches 52, he wakes up and he loses his ticket (back to the patient who had it originally). So, Bean has to get another ticket. Again, he starts a fight between the same two men from earlier to get immediately to the counter. He is frustrated when he picks a larger number ticket and he throws it in the bin, but his other hand gets stuck as he tries to recover the ticket. Unable to recover it, he picks another ticket by using his mouth.

Act 2

Bean visits Windsor Castle and takes a few photographs, including one of the inside of a dustbin, and another of a nude statue after covering the penis. He then prises the gnomon off a sundial in order to place his camera on the stand, in order to get a photo of himself with a Queen's Guard. He dresses the guard up with flowers and other things, trims his moustache (into one similar to Adolf Hitler and Charlie Chaplin) and hangs his Teddy off his bayonet. While Bean is doing this, the guard is forced to remain almost motionless (which proves difficult, as especially when Bean starts to dangerously clean the trigger on his rifle). Just as Bean has wound the self-timer on his camera, the charge is called and the guard walks away, Teddy and all, just before the camera snaps the photo. Off screen, we hear Bean groan in anger and frustration from this.

Act 3

Bean prepares for bed (using his new electric toothbrush to clean his teeth and ears, reading an Asterix comic with Teddy), then puts Teddy to sleep and shoots out the light bulb with a pistol (at this point, it is seen that he has many more light bulbs in his bedside cabinet), but has trouble falling asleep. He scares away noisy cats outside his window by disguising himself as a dog and barking, then watches a televised chess match. He is nearly asleep when the television channel cuts to a Bodyform advertisement, via a star wipe, featuring loud rock and roll music. Finally, he takes out a picture of a flock of sheep and begins counting them, first with his finger and then, after losing count a few times, with the assistance of a calculator. When he sees the number of sheep (albeit inaccurate) on the calculator display, he promptly falls asleep. During the closing credits, he rolls out of bed and falls to the floor.

Production

The opening and closing titles feature the new version of the theme song, performed by the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. Parts of Act 1 were filmed at the National Temperance Hospital in London, which is now closed. ^[2]

Censors

The pistol firing scene in Act 3 was cut out on some children's channels, due to its violent nature.

Legacy

A scene in Act 2 where Bean covered the penis of the naked statue of an angel with plastic for censorship purposes, before it was pictured was also recycled in the Mr. Bean, The Animated Series episode "Art Thief". The other episode "Big TV" also featured Bean turning on his television with a glove attached to a broomstick, as referenced on the latter part of Act 3.

References

External links

• "Goodnight Mr. Bean" at the Internet Movie Database