Mr. Bean Rides Again

"Mr. Bean Rides Again" is the sixth episode of the television series Mr. Bean that originally aired on ITV on 17 February 1992.^[1]

Plot

Act 1

Mr. Bean wants to go to the post office, but finds (after using four keys in sequence, each to unlock where the next is stored) that his car battery is dead, so he decides to catch a bus instead. He reaches the bus stop, where there is a man already waiting. The man then has a heart attack. Bean tries to revive him by stomping on him, stuffing pills down his throat, trying mouth-to-mouth resuscitation (with the man's magazine) and using electric shock treatment, using jump leads connected to a nearby lamppost to zap him.

This initially works, but he forgets to remove the jump leads from his hands when the man offers a handshake, zapping him again, making him pass out again. An ambulance arrives, but while the paramedics treat the man, Bean uses the ambulance battery to jumpstart his Mini. Bean drives off, leaving the ambulance disabled, due to a dead battery, forcing the paramedics to call for another ambulance.

Act 2

Bean heads to a postbox, but on the way he accidentally swallows his postage stamp. He offers to post a letter for a lady, pretends that he has posted it, but hangs on to it until she is gone, so that he can use the stamp for his own letter. He removes the stamp using steam from his car radiator, and uses a sweet (stuck to the inside of his pocket since the first episode) to stick it to his letter, and uses his fist to press it down.

The postman arrives to empty the postbox, just as the lady returns to find her letter on the ground. She complains to the postman that there was a stamp on her letter, but now it is gone. Bean hides inside the postbox, to avoid getting into trouble for stealing the stamp. He gets locked inside for an unknown amount of time (the original commercial break occurred here), though as the postbox had a "1" showing, it was probably all night.

When he is finally released (by another postman), he loses his keys down a drain and gets a bus home. He waits at the bus stop with another man. The man gets on the bus, but Mr. Bean is not so lucky – the driver tells him he cannot enter the bus, as it is full, forcing Bean to wait for the next one.

Deleted scene

This episode contained a deleted scene at the end of Act 2. ^[2] After Mr. Bean is unsuccessful at getting on the bus he waits alone for the next bus and notices the letter he was trying to post earlier was still in his pocket. Mr. Bean makes a choice to post the letter but on return finds a woman (Matilda Ziegler) with a baby in a pram is now waiting for the bus, and is worried that the bus driver won't let him on as the previous bus only let on one passenger.

Mr. Bean attempts to push in front of the woman. Mr. Bean's attempts include trying to distract the woman, unlocking the brakes on the baby's pram and upsetting the baby. Mr. Bean is successful at pushing in front, but then when he is distracted a blind man (Robin Driscoll) unknowingly pushes in front. Mr. Bean then attempts to distract the blind man: he first shortens the man's cane, causing the blind man to walk in a different direction; he also tricks the man by mimicking the sound of the bus engine and the door opening, leading the blind man to walk onto the road.

As the woman rescues the blind man, Mr. Bean takes his place at the front of the line. The bus arrives and parks to the right of the queue with two extra people arriving at the same time; the two new arrivals board the bus first, followed by the woman and her baby and the blind man, leaving Bean at the back of the queue and not allowed on the bus as it is full, forcing Bean to wait for the next one.

The scene was excised from original broadcast mostly because of Bean tricking the blind man into almost getting run over, but also for time constraints (the episode with the scene runs at over 28 minutes).

Act 3

A frame of the act

Bean tries to pack for a holiday, but his small case does not have space for his clothes, as well as his tins of baked beans. He reduces the size of his belongings (often using scissors) to fit them into the case. He cuts up a pair of trousers (which was unnecessary since he already had shorts), breaks his toothbrush, pours some toothpaste down the sink, takes just one sandal and uses a flannel for a towel.

He does not have the heart to cut up his teddy bear. After finally managing to fit his things in the tiny briefcase, he reaches under the bed, only to discover that he owns another briefcase, almost double the size of the small one. But since his small briefcase is already packed, he just puts it into the larger suitcase, along with the one thing he could not pack before – a book.

Act 4

Bean boards a train and reads a book, across from another man who is also reading. The man begins laughing loudly and continually at a passage in the book. Bean struggles to plug his ears to avoid the laughter, eliciting curious stares when the man looks up. Bean then finds some bubblegum, puts it on his ears, and it works.

Finally, the train guard comes in and asks to see their tickets. Bean is startled by his presence, accidentally ejecting his book, with the ticket tucked inside, out of the train window, and the man bursts out laughing once more.

Act 5

Bean boards an aeroplane, but is forced to look after a sick boy next to him. He tries to cheer the boy up by various means, by sticking magazine bits on his face to amuse him, playing with a self-inflating life jacket (which later flies out of Bean's seat) and by blowing air into a paper bag and trying to pop it. He discovers that the bag is too small, and starts rummaging for another bag.

While his back is turned, when the plane loses its altitude for the short time twice, the boy vomits into a mid-flight sick bag when the plane experiences a bit of turbulence, and offers the bag to Bean, who takes it unaware and smashes the vomit-filled bag. The act ends with the popping noise of the bag followed by the screen blacking out, leaving the outcome ambiguous.

Production

Later episodes would only credit Robin Driscoll and Rowan Atkinson as co-writers of Mr. Bean. This was the last episode to credit both John Birkin and Paul Weiland as directors; all film scenes were credited to Weiland, while all videotape scenes were credited to Birkin.

The end credits of this episode is one of two to perform a volte-face: showing the reverse of the opening titles where Mr. Bean is sucked back into the sky, and the only episode to do so with the street scenery. This is the last episode to feature the name of the episode in the first opening sequence. In later episodes, the main title of "Mr. Bean" is displayed. The episode title is then displayed once the episode actually starts.

Broadcast

Mr. Bean Rides Again was first broadcast on the ITV network on Monday 17 February 1992.

17.11 million viewers watched this episode on the original transmission.

Casting

Nick Hancock, who played the thief in Mr. Bean Goes to Town, returned as the train conductor.

Legacy

The joke of Mr. Bean popping a vomit filled bag is reused in the movie Bean, although in this episode, the scene ends without showing the outcome. The joke of Mr. Bean cheering up the boy on the plane using paper strips torn from a magazine is reused in Mr. Bean's Holiday, cheering up the Cannes Film Festival jury member and film director's son Stepan on the train.

"Car Trouble" from Mr. Bean, The Animated Series was inspired by Act 1. Act 4 indirectly segued into Act 4 of a later Mr. Bean episode Hair by Mr. Bean of London in which he departed the train, only to find out that he does not have his ticket. Both acts later inspired the train scene from Mr. Bean's Holiday.

Censors

The heart attack scene was edited out when broadcast on Nickelodeon UK.

References

External links

• "Mr. Bean Rides Again" at the Internet Movie Database