Hair by Mr. Bean of London

"Hair by Mr. Bean of London" is the fourteenth episode of the British television series Mr. Bean, produced by Tiger Aspect Productions in association with Thames Video in 1995. It was first released on VHS as an exclusive direct-to-video episode in 1995, and was not broadcast on television in the United Kingdom until 2006.

"Hair by Mr. Bean of London"
Mr. Bean episode
Episode no.Episode 14
Directed byJohn Birkin
Written byRobin Driscoll
Rowan Atkinson
Produced bySue Vertue
Original air date2006
Running time26:15
Guest appearance(s)

Plot

Act 1: The Barbershop

Mr. Bean goes to Derrick (Tony Haase)'s barbershop to have a haircut. After he chooses what hair style he wants by pointing to a calendar of Prince Charles, Derrick attempts to make the first snip, but is unable to do so as Bean keeps tilting his head forward to read a magazine. The office phone then rings, and Derrick reluctantly goes to answer it. All alone, Bean entertains himself by pretending to give someone a haircut until two customers come in and assume Bean is the hairdresser. The first customer is Jamie, a young boy whose mother leaves him in Bean's care as she runs to retrieve her purse she left at the shop. Bean places a bowl over Jamie's head and cuts his messy shoulder length mullet and fringe into a neater bowl hairstyle. He then accidentally shaves off a small piece of Jamie's hair while trying to use a hair clipper, and ends up shaving a bald stripe down the middle of his head to even it out. Although it looks ridiculous, Jamie is nonetheless satisfied with his new hairstyle.

After Jamie's mother returns and pays Bean for the haircut (which she cannot see as Bean has covered Jamie's hair with a hat), he returns to his seat just as Derrick returns from the phone, only for it to ring again; Bean then resumes being the substitute hairdresser, and his next customer being a man with a ponytail (Colin Wells) which took virtually two and a half years to grow. While trimming the ponytail, Bean becomes distracted by the magazine the man is reading and accidentally detaches the ponytail. After finishing, Bean uses a portrait of a different ponytailed man over a mirror to deceive him and the man pays Bean and leaves, unaware that his real ponytail has gone.

Bean's final customer is Roger (Frederick Treves), a man who is supposedly a regular at Derrick's. After taking off his glasses, Roger mistakes Bean for Derrick due to his poor eyesight and asks for his usual haircut. Bean then proceeds to use the hair clipper but, despite being as careful as he can, he accidentally shaves off Roger's toupee, causing it to get stuck in the clipper. He remedies it by applying mousse on Roger's bald spot and using bits of hair from the floor to create a new "toupee". Derrick finally returns from his phone call just as Roger pays him and leaves, and Derrick's initial confusion intensifies when Jamie's mother and the man who had the ponytail storm in and demand to know where his supposed assistant (who is nobody other than Bean himself) is as they hate the terrible haircuts he gave (even though Jamie insists he likes his haircut while his mother does not).

Bean sneaks out by disguising his face with the Prince Charles calendar in order to avoid being recognised. Roger then storms in and mistakenly greets Bean as Prince Charles himself thanks to his poor eyesight, before going over to and berating Derrick for his haircut. Bean then finally sneaks out of the door and makes a run for it.

Act 2: The Fête and the Pet Show

Following his haircut, Bean heads to a fête where firstly, he is unable to find somewhere to park his Mini, so he instead parks in one of the sheep pens after sounding the horn in order to get the sheep out of the way. Upon going inside the fête tents, he cheats at the indoor games, such as nudging a young boy playing a wire loop game, causing him to lose the game.[1] He then plays the game himself, but after failing on the first attempt, he unplugs it and wins; the owner only realises it has been unplugged after giving Bean his prize. Afterwards, Bean plays a game called "Hit the Headmaster", where he must throw wet sponges at the "headmaster" (George Webb) in which gets a bit carried away by throwing random objects, such as canned peas and cereal boxes, at the "headmaster". He almost throws a chair, but a nearby teacher stops him.

Later, Bean participates at a pet show by entering Teddy into the competition. In the competition, Bean cheats his way through everything using Teddy despite winning easily due to the other kids' dogs not being trained well, much to the annoyance of the contest organisers. At the end of the show, two kids are awarded a ribbon each while Bean is awarded a huge bone by one of the contest organizers. However, Bean does not want it, so he instead takes a jar of honey to his satisfaction. Following this, he throws the bone back into the tent, inadvertently creating chaos off-screen involving the children and their dogs, who are presumably fighting for the bone. As the chaos ensues, Bean promptly exits the tent with Teddy.

Act 3: The Railway Station

Following the pet show, Bean gets off a train at London St Pancras railway station. Unfortunately, he has lost his ticket on the way, so he decides to sneak past a security guard (Robin Driscoll). After several failed attempts, he hides inside a mail bag and crawls towards the gate. When the guard leaves once the clock bell rings, Bean climbs onto the gate, but two station workers turn the gate around to which Bean crawls off the gate (while celebrating that he has made it through) and ends up falling onto the railway tracks. Two station workers appear and put the mailbag (with Bean still inside) on board a train carrying cargo and mail that is destined for Moscow. As the end credits roll, we see short clips of a ship sailing through a rough sea (most likely carrying the mail and cargo from the train earlier), and then of a French steam train and of marching Russian soldiers in Moscow's Red Square (indicating that Bean indeed ended up in Russia).

Cast

Production

As per the other episodes, studio sequences were recorded before a live audience at Teddington Studios.

On the door of the railway coach next to the English inscription of "MOSCOW", some mock Cyrillic writing is visible "НПУЛЦА" (npultsa) instead of "МОСКВА". Co-writer Robin Driscoll made a cameo appearance as the railway guard - his first since "Mr. Bean Goes to Town". The original recording of the choral theme by the Choir of Southwark Cathedral, was used in the opening titles. However, the end credits incorrectly credited it to the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.

Act 1 inspired the Mr. Bean: The Animated Series episode "Haircut". A train scene inspired by Act 3 was featured in the film Mr. Bean's Holiday.

Broadcast

"Hair by Mr. Bean of London" was first released on VHS in 1995 as a video exclusive and until 2006, it was the only episode never to air on any British television network. This episode was broadcast overseas and received its Irish premiere on RTÉ One in 2005 - it also aired on ABC in Australia in August 2001[2] and on TV3 in New Zealand in November 2001..

The episode was first screened on United Kingdom television on 13 August 2006, when it was shown on satellite, pay TV and cable channel Comedy Central Extra (then known as Paramount Comedy 2) and 25 August 2006 on Nickelodeon UK but for some time, it remained the only full-length episode not to air on terrestrial television in the UK. It has since been broadcast on ITV3 and ITV4.

References
  1. Julian Dutton (23 July 2015). Keeping Quiet: Visual Comedy in the Age of Sound. Andrews UK Limited. pp. 347–. ISBN 978-1-909183-83-4.
  2. Debritz, Brett (2001-08-15). "bean there, done that". Brisbane News. p. 23. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
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