Mr. Bean Goes to Town

Mr. Bean Goes to Town
Season	1
Episode	4
Air date	October 15, 1991
Written by	Richard Curtis, Robin Driscoll, Rowan Atkinson
Directed by	Paul Weiland, John Birkin
Previous	The Curse of Mr. Bean
Next	The Trouble with Mr. Bean

Mr. Bean Goes to Town is the fourth episode of the television series. It originally aired over ITV on October 15, 1991.

Plot

Act One: The antenna

Mr. Bean buys a portable television for his flat, and has difficulty in trying to position the antenna 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, it fails which he gets annoyed by the aerial, Ingeniously, he take off his clothes and assemble on the chair, and placed by the cardboard box which actually works out and the television starts working - just before his pre-paid electricity meter runs out.

Act Two: The camera

Mr. Bean tries out his new Polaroid camera in the park. Unable to get a clear shot, Bean asks a passerby to take his photo, but the man tricks Bean and makes off with the camera. Upon realising what happened, Bean seeks the thief out and eventually traps him in a rubbish bin and pokes him with a pencil, but the thief escapes just as Bean alerts a passing police officer (Matilda Ziegler) to the theft. At the police station, Bean has difficulty in identifying the thief in a police lineup, which makes him request to the police sergeant to make a slight alteration by having the suspects wear rubbish bins over their heads and subjecting them to a pencil poking test. Using his pencil, Bean pokes the suspect lineup until he hears the culprit's scream of pain that he recalls, effectively identifying him.

Act Three: The stone

Mr. Bean gets a stone in his foot while in the town, so he takes off his shoe and sock to get it out. But he puts his shoe on the roof of a parked Mazda. The car drives away, leaving Mr. Bean to hop through town to find it (which he eventually does).

Act Four: The photo booth

Mr. Bean goes to the photo booth, where he takes pictures of himself. It takes only a few seconds, and his pictures are released after he slaps the machine, only for us to find out that he took pictures of his back to check his haircut.

Act Five: Going out

Mr. Bean goes out with his girlfriend at night to a magic show. He arrives and apologizes for being late and they go in. He sees the club's neon name flashing and thinking it's not supposed to do that, he peeks back out, smacks the sign's power box and it stays lit, only to burn out a few seconds later. Once inside, he raises his hand to signal the waiter as the magician asks for a volunteer, which is misinterpreted by him as Mr. Bean volunteering. He then messes up the magic act in an attempt to retrieve his watch that the magician "stole" as part of a trick, and he finally retrieves his watch and shows his girlfriend, only to see she's not there anymore, having been too embarrassed to stay. So he leaves and goes in the room opposite the magic stage, which was the disco, chased by the magician with a sword. He then spots his girlfriend and tries to impress her with his dance moves, which fails. After repeatedly attempting to interfere with another man dancing with her, he asks the DJ to play a slow song so he can ask her to dance, only to see her dancing in the arms of that man. Saddened, Bean leaves the disco, but not before getting the last laugh by shutting off the power first.

On his way home Mr. Bean passes a window display of television sets, which individually lose their picture just as he passes them. As he walks off, the football match is back on, and as he peeks in, the interference is back, and the image comes back when he leaves again.

Characters

• Mr. Bean
• Irma Gobb (credited as "The Girlfriend")

Cast

• Rowan Atkinson - Mr. Bean
• Nick Hancock - Camera Thief
• Robin Driscoll - Police Sergeant
• Dursley McLinden - Shoe Salesman
• Alan Shaxon - Eddie Spangle (the magician)
• Julia Howson - Monique (the magician's assistant)
• Matilda Ziegler - Irma Gobb (credited as "The Girlfriend")
• Howard Goodall - Musician
• Richard Marcangelo - Musician
• Mark Khan - Disco Dancer
• Phil Nice - Disco Dancer

Trivia

• The photobooth scene is reused in Mr. Bean: The Animated Series' episode, "Hot Date" where he and his girlfriend (Irma Gobb) take photos, but turns out that Bean creates hilarious and wacky poses, much to Irma's dismay.
• This is the first episode to be shot entirely on video and film. The Antenna, the Suspects, the Photobooth, and the clubhouse scene uses video tape, while the film stock is used in the Camera Thief and the Stone scene, and the credits roll.
• Matilda Ziegler plays a dual role in this episode: Irma Gobb and the police officer whom Mr. Bean asks for help after capturing a thief.
• This is the first episode where Both Mr. Bean and his girlfriend takes a date.
  • His girlfriend waiting for him impatiently outside the clubhouse is also reused in "Hot Date" episode where Bean is late to a movie date with Irma.
• It would be unwise for a camera thief to repeat his scream when Mr. Bean takes a pencil poking test towards the suspects in trash bins.
• Mr. Bean turning off the main switch to the dance club as revenge for a man's idea to go dancing with his girlfriend would be ethically and morally impolite because it would mean everyone else would not be able to dance.
• The original VHS version of the episode featured a different title card and the street opening was omitted.
• Nick Hancock, who plays the thief, later returns in Mr. Bean Rides Again as the train conductor.
• The police station scene in "The Camera" was the basis for the animated Mr. Bean episode, "In the Pink", wherein the titular character has to identify a criminal he caught using a lineup.
• The location Mr. Bean photographed is Battersea Park.
• This is the only episode to be aired in 1991.

Video