The Curse of Mr. Bean
"The Curse of Mr. Bean" is the third episode of the British television series Mr. Bean, produced by Tiger Television for Thames Television. It was first broadcast on ITV on 30 December 1990 and was watched by 13.8 million viewers during its original transmission. It won the 1991 International Emmy Award for Outstanding Popular Arts Programme.
| "The Curse of Mr. Bean" | |
|---|---|
| Mr. Bean episode | |
| Episode no. | Episode 3 |
| Directed by | John Howard Davies |
| Written by | Richard Curtis Robin Driscoll Rowan Atkinson |
| Produced by | John Howard Davies |
| Original air date | 30 December 1990[1] |
| Running time | 24:31 |
| Awards | International Emmy Award Outstanding Popular Arts Programme[2][3] |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
Plot
Act 1: The Swimming Pool and the Car Park
Bean decides to go the local public indoor swimming pool, where he uses a mechanical arm grabber to take out his ticket from the machine and parks his Mini in the nearby car park. Once inside and changed, he becomes excited upon seeing a couple of children's slides and attempts to use one, only for a lifeguard to spot him and order him off the slides. Bean soon spots the diving boards and decides to try out the highest one. However, he soon becomes frightened when he learns how high up he is, and tries to chicken out, only to find two boys waiting for their turn. Forced to attempt a dive, Bean fails at his initial try and decides to climb off the edge. One of the two impatient boys decides to get him off the diving board by stamping on his hand, causing him to fall into the pool. Upon surfacing, Bean spots that his trunks came off and fails to retrieve them as a little girl in a yellow swimsuit fishes them out with her snorkel and innocently takes them with her without her parents noticing. Left naked, just as the lifeguard orders everyone out, Bean attempts to get back to the changing room, hiding to avoid being spotted by a female lifeguard only to encounter and freak out a group of female swimmers who see his nude body, scream, and run away.[4]
After drying and changing back into his clothes, Bean prepares to leave the car park, only to find he must pay £16 in order to raise the barrier over the exit. Since this is too expensive, he opts to find a way to avoid this and decides to find a way of leaving through the entrance. Bean pushes a rubbish bin into the entrance to trick the ticket machine into issuing a ticket to open the barrier and he drives his Mini out, but just as he moves the bin out of the way to leave, a car drives in and forces him to reverse back into the car park. Tentatively waiting to drive at the barrier over the entrance, Bean suddenly spots the blue Reliant about to enter the car park. As the driver takes a ticket from the machine and opens the barrier, Bean drives his Mini at full speed towards the Reliant, forcing it out of his way and causing it to topple over as he leaves.
Act 2: Lunch in the Park
Heading for the park for lunch, Bean greets a man who is also having lunch while sitting on a bench. Spotting him having a sandwich, Bean sets about making his own using ingredients and tools he stuffed into his coat. He cuts two slices of bread from a loaf with scissors, spreads butter on them with his credit card, washes lettuce under a drinking fountain's water before using his sock to dry it, kills two sardines he takes out of a jar and then crushes peppercorns folded into a handkerchief using his shoe. After making his sandwich, Bean notices the man sipping some tea, and prepares to make his own using a hot water bottle for cramps, putting a teabag into it while placing the bottle's stopper in his ear. He then proceeds to suck up milk from a baby bottle and spit it into the water in the hot water bottle, before sloshing it together. As he prepares to have his lunch, he ties his handkerchief around his neck, opting to use it as a napkin, only for the pepper traces on it to cause him to sneeze, making him drop his sandwich onto the ground and spray his tea all over himself, ruining his own lunch. The man, witnessing this, offers Bean the other half of his pre-packed sandwich as replacement, much to Bean's gratitude as the cap pops out of his ear.
Act 3: The Horror Film
Driving to meet up with his girlfriend Irma Gobb at the cinema, Bean is temporarily stopped at a junction by a set of traffic lights, but upon seeing a cyclist push his bike manually, he opts to do the same with his Mini and push it round to the road he wants to take, before driving off. Arriving at the cinema, Bean prepares to watch a horror film which appears to be titled A Nightmare (the film poster shown is that of A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, depicting Freddy Krueger, with the camera placed to cut off the last words) with Irma, providing them with popcorn – a large tub for himself along with a hidden drink in his top, and a small tub for Irma, stealing some from her tub but scolding her when she tries to do the same. Before the film begins, Bean teases her by scaring her with silly practical jokes. However, as the film begins, he soon finds himself being scared witless with the various scenes frightening him to the point he tries to avoid watching it, even trying to force Irma to leave with him only to be forced to remain in his seat. Bean then tries to cover his head with his sweater, causing Irma to scream when she thinks his head has been cut off. Finally, Bean manages to find a solution by using some popcorn as earplugs, and using the popcorn tub to cover his eyes from the film. This works, and he manages to avoid the remaining scenes. As everyone begins to leave as the film ends, Irma lets Bean know they are leaving to which he removes the tub and eats the popcorn earplugs, before trying to tease another of the cinema's customers. The episode ends with Bean failing to notice that she put her coat over her like a cape, causing the pair to scream in fright when Bean finds her coat arm empty, ending the episode.
Cast
- Rowan Atkinson − Mr. Bean
- Angus Deayton – pool attendant; man on the park bench
- Matilda Ziegler – Irma Gobb (The Girlfriend)
Production notes
The swimming pool sequence was filmed entirely at the Hayes Pool and Fitness Centre, rebuilt and renamed in 2010. [5][6][7][8] with the car park sequences at the Heathrow Bowling car park and the short traffic lights scene in Feltham (close to the Hayes pool centre). This was the last episode to be produced with an OB unit. Studio sequences were recorded before a live audience at Thames Television's Teddington Studios. This also marked the first appearance of Bean's 1977 Leyland Mini 1000.
The Curse of Mr Bean went onto win the 1991 International Emmy Award for Outstanding Popular Arts Programme.[2][3]
Scenes from this episode later inspired the storylines of episodes from Mr. Bean: The Animated Series:
- The car park sequence in Act 1 inspired the episodes No Parking and Car Wars.
- Act 3 inspired the episode Scaredy Bean.
Censorship
The scene from Act 1 where Mr. Bean accidentally exposes himself to a group of female swimmers was cut on broadcasts on the Philippine network ABS-CBN, Nickelodeon UK and Disney Channel.
References
- "Mr Bean – Timeline". mrbean.com. ITV (Thames Television). Archived from the original on 31 December 2012. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
- "1991 INternational Emmy Awards Bestowed in New York". AP News Archive. 26 November 1991. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
- "Awards". tigeraspect. Archived from the original on 16 June 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
- The DVD-laser Disc Newsletter. 173–183. DVD-Laser Disc Newsletter. 1999. pp. 42–.
In The Curse of Mr. Bean he chickens out on a high dive, tries to eat a sandwich at a park bench and takes a date to a horror movie. In Mr. Bean Goes to Town he has his camera stolen in a park, he loses a shoe and tries to chase after it on one ...
- https://www.flickr.com/photos/piratelukey/sets/72157627374658240/
- http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/leisure-sites/65915-hayes-swimming-pool-mr-beans-september-2011-a.html
- http://urbandecay.heavenforum.org/t163-mr-beans-swimming-poolhayes-swimming-pool
- http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/leisure-sites/65573-hayes-swimming-pool-oct-2011-a.html