The Return of Mr. Bean

The Return of Mr. Bean is the second episode of the live-action TV series. It originally aired over ITV on November 5, 1990.

Act One: The Busker
Mr. Bean sees a busker playing a saxophone and wants to drop some change in his case. He thinks that giving him money will allow him to get access to the tunnel. When Bean finds he has no change (and avoids using his paper bill), he places his handkerchief on the ground and starts dancing stupidly to the saxophone music; an elderly woman stops by and leaves Bean a coin, which he then drops into the saxophonist's case and continues into the tunnel.

Act Two: Shopping
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 — Bean opens and uses a toothbrush (returns it and pretends he didn't do it), tries on a selected 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 chose. He also chooses the telephone from the receptionist's desk 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, Bean places the card on the counter. Another man's identical card gets covered under the grocery bag that he purchased and takes Mr. Bean's card accidentally. Bean quietly pick-pockets the man and gets his card back from the wallet (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 and shocks the man by offering him a roll of toilet paper.

Act Three: The Restaurant
Mr. Bean goes to a restaurant on his birthday and orders a steak tartare (after gifting a birthday card to himself and getting surprised by it and showing it off then endeared by what he wrote himself), which he expected to be a regular steak. A waiter comes by offering him to try the house wine, which he swiftly drinks and stares at the waiter smiling. As he's about to pour some more, Mr. Bean declines, saying he's driving and he may end up drunk driving. Then he shows off the napkin the waiter brought him, only to lose it when it flies towards a neighbouring table and he pretends it's not his. Once the steak arrives, he is disgusted by the tartare's taste and appearance (assuming it is half-cooked), so he cuts it up and hides the pieces in different places (ashtray, tiny vase, hollowed-out roll, under a plate, sugar basin, violinist's trousers, handbag). The violinist won't walk off until Mr. Bean has a bite, and as soon as he turns around, Mr. Bean spits it down said trousers. Conveniently, a waiter walks by and gets tripped by Mr. Bean's leg while Mr. Bean is hiding his tartare in the woman's handbag. He spills his tray onto Bean's table, which provides him with an opportunity to cover up his actions by showing the waiter and the maitre d' that the tartare has ended up inside the vase, inside his bread, under his plate, in the trousers, and in a handbag. The maitre d' apologises and promptly moves Mr. Bean to another table, where the waiter brings out a free dish, which, unfortunately for Mr. Bean, is another steak tartare, seemingly bigger than the first. Although Bean is appalled, he must eat it, as the maitre d', the waiter, and the violinist are all watching him.

Act Four: The Queen
Mr. Bean is waiting to meet Queen Elizabeth II 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, folding back the corners of a postcard to serve as a pocket handkerchief, and using a loose thread from a waitress (played by Matilda Ziegler who also plays his girlfriend Irma) uniform to floss his teeth), but when he uses his trouser's 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, Mr. Bean accidentally headbutts the Queen, who is knocked to the floor. As the episode ends during the confusion, Mr. Bean makes a run for it.

Cast

 * Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean
 * Dave O'Higgins as The Busker
 * Paul McDowell as The Customer
 * William Van Dyck as The Checkout Manager
 * John Junkin as The Maître D'
 * Roger Lloyd Pack as The Waiter
 * Steve McNicholas as The Violinist
 * Robin Driscoll as The Cinema Manager
 * Matilda Ziegler as The Waitress
 * Tina Maskell as The Royal

Trivia

 * First appearance of the black and white opening sequence as well as the theme tune "Ecce Homo qui est faba". It is also the second episode to be shot entirely on video.
 * Mr. Beans American Express card is ironically registered to "THAMES TV PLC"
 * Mr. Bean would again send himself a letter in the episode, "Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean".
 * Act 4 was remade in 1991 by 20th Century Fox into a short film called Mr. Bean Goes to a Première, which was included on the UK VHS rental release of Hot Shots.
 * The Cinema Manager, seen standing left of Mr. Bean, was played by writer Robin Driscoll.
 * The Waiterss, seen standing right of Mr. Bean, was played by Matilda Ziegler, who would go on to portray Mr. Bean's girlfriend and series regular, Irma Gobb, starting with the next episode.
 * Mr. Bean is again dancing in the park with his Teddy Bear in the animated episode Mime Game where the lady drops the coin and he uses the coin to drop into the silver statue to see the silver statue's reaction.
 * Mr. Bean would dance again in the movie Mr. Bean's Holiday based on the music which played from the speaker belonging to a CD seller. Unlike this episode, he and Stephan got a lot of money from the public and used the money to buy foods and bus tickets.
 * Mr. Bean is again hiding the food into another's woman handbag in the movie Mr. Bean's Holiday. This time it's oyster, due to the effect from the episode Mr. Bean in Room 426. However unlike this episode, the woman was aware of something hidden inside her bag after her mobile phone was ringing and was very scared when she holding it.
 * Mr. Bean would be arrested for accidentally following the man who had his card in his back pocket into the lavatory and also for accidentally headbutting the Queen because it is considered a physical offence against royalty.
 * It is unknown why other people, including journalists and photographers, didn't mind Mr. Bean's action.
 * This episode marks the first time that Mr. Bean commits an action which would normally be a crime or an offence, followed by "Tee Off Mr. Bean" (Wrecking groceries of a woman in an attempt to retrieve his golf ball, blowing up a car when his ball was stuck in the car's exhaust pipe, and littering from garbage truck), "Mr. Bean in Room 426" (Vandalism for marking holes on the wall of his hotel room and creating a hole to the neighbour's bathroom, and public nudity) and "Hair by Mr Bean of London" (Stowawaying in the train and ship to Moscow, Russia).
 * That said, his criminal offence is again (and clearly) committed in "Bean". He was arrested by Los Angeles Airport Police for gun fraudulent in airport in Los Angeles, California, and again for hacking into 3D Ride's computer to make the ride more dangerous (more exciting only for him) in the carnival by Los Angeles Police Department, but almost after vandalising Whistler's Mother, falsifying it using polished poster of the same painting, and stealing the original painting back home. Also, it would have been illegal to impersonate as a doctor for both Brutus and Jennifer. But in "Mr. Bean's Holiday", he was mistakenly thought for kidnapping a child, Stephan Dachevsky.
 * In a 2014 airing of this episode on Disney Channel Asia, the part where the man pulls his pants and underwear down in the bathroom stall was cut due to the half-nudity. Later, in 2016, also on Disney Channel Asia, the scene where the man next to Mr. Bean bows in front of the queen was edited out due to timing.
 * In Portugal VHS releases, the scene where a man pulls his pants and underwear down in the bathroom stall was cut due to half-nudity, and the scene where the man next to Mr. Bean bows in front of the queen was modified for the release. In the VHS release, his animation is edited out.
 * However, in later VHS releases, the episode is completelly uncensored.