Back to School Mr. Bean

"Back to School Mr. Bean" is the eleventh episode of the British television series Mr. Bean, produced by Tiger Aspect Productions and Thames Television for Central Independent Television. It was first broadcast on ITV on Wednesday, 26 October 1994 and was watched by 14,450,000 viewers during its original broadcast.^[1][2]

Plot[]

Act 1: At School[]

Attending the opening day of a new school, Mr. Bean is unable to find a parking space but spots a Mini looking near-identical to his own (albeit with missing wing mirrors) in a reserved parking space, finds it unlocked and replaces the one in the parking space with his own. Two Army Cadets then find him pushing his Mini (actually the one moved from the parking space) and help him. While they push the Mini, Bean slowly closes the door and runs behind a wall and makes a humorous sound as if he were inside. He then confuses a troop of Army Cadets, while the commander has gone into an office, by coughing, which causes them to respond by stomping once simultaneously, and then giving military-like commands which cause them to respond by standing in unusual ceremonial stances and heads inside the school while the angry commander scolds his troop of Army Cadets upon his return.

Bean then gets in another man's way while looking at various things on the wall, messes up a philatelist's stamp collection and frightens a calligrapher, causing him to make a mistake. Later, he sees a woman using a Van de Graaff generator to make her hair stand on end, and then tries it himself but finds it doesn't work on him. However, it leaves his body electrostatically charged, such that when he then picks up a leaflet to read it, it remains stuck to him. After multiple failed attempts to get rid of the leaflet, he hands it to a woman, but the static electricity causes her skirt to rise up to cover her head and reveal her legs and white granny panties. Bean promptly leaves while other people try to pull down her skirt.

Act 2: Laboratory Trouble and the Art Class[]

In the chemistry lab, Bean experiments with several chemicals and makes a creative but very unstable chemical reaction, forcing Bean to escape from the laboratory as a young boy () enters and inspects the experiment. As Bean walks out of the laboratory, a violent explosion erupts, with blue smoke emerging from beneath the door.

In a still-life art class, Bean is first made to draw a bowl of fruit. A moment later, the bowl of fruit is replaced with a nude model (Cindy Milo); he does not notice this immediately, but then suddenly realises he has drawn the woman's breasts and not a piece of fruit; like he initially thought he was doing. Bean is so appalled at realising what he was drawing was a naked woman, he is reluctant to draw any further despite the French art teacher's (Suzanne Bertish) attempts to persuade him.

While the teacher is tending to somebody else, Bean goes over to the potter's wheel and makes some clay pots; when he is doing it, the boy from the chemistry lab, now covered in blue chemical powder, and his teacher arrive inside the room to seek the person responsible for causing the explosion. Failing to find him, and having just noticed the nude model, they rush out of the classroom. After Bean finishes making clay pots, he puts them on the model's breasts, allowing him to draw her without embarrassment. The teacher confronts Bean for drawing the wrong object again, suddenly realising that the grimaced woman's chest is covered in a clay bra. After that, Bean finishes his work and walks proudly out of the class, while the teacher looks at Bean's work and turns out to be impressed with it.

Act 3: The Judo Class and the Toilet[]

At a judo class, a frightened Bean is reluctant to allow himself to be thrown, but ultimately manages to confuse his teacher by running behind him during the bowing process, push him over from behind, and roll him up in a mat.

After the class, when Bean has just changed back into his regular clothes, he finds that he has swapped trousers with someone else and goes on a long search for his own. In the men's toilets, he spots them, cleverly seeing his name on the label while the man is sitting on the toilet. Bean distracts the man, frantically grabs him by the legs and tries to grab his trousers. While this is happening, the commander enters the toilet and Bean fools him by cleaning the man's shoes and the commander immediately leaves the toilet. Bean continues and finally retrieves his trousers, as well as the man's underwear, which he throws back to the man—though his underpants end up falling into the toilet.

Act 4: The Unexpected Disaster[]

Just as Bean exits the school, there is an announcement over the PA system stating that there will be a demonstration shortly (the man giving the announcement is voiced by Rowan Atkinson). Bean walks over to where he parked his Mini at the beginning of the day, but soon realises it is no longer where he parked it. After looking, he sees his Mini in the middle of the car park, with a lot of people watching it from behind. Not bothered by this, Bean makes a beeline for his Mini, but on the way, he is distracted by a woman's cake stall set up nearby. He walks over to the stall and buys a delicious cupcake, unaware that a giant Chieftain tank has just appeared in the car park and that the crushing sound he hears is his Mini being crushed. After the tank leaves, Bean turns around, does a double take, drops his cupcake on the road and slowly walks over to his Mini with a sad look on his face. As the ending credits roll, Bean examines the destroyed Mini and finds that the padlock he uses to lock his Mini was left intact and unharmed. Seemingly satisfied with this, he pulls the lock off and happily leaves as the episode ends.

Continuity[]

During The Best Bits of Mr. Bean, Bean finds the wreckage of his destroyed Mini in his loft.

Although the Mini has been crushed it reappears two episodes later in "Goodnight, Mr Bean". This Mini was also Austin Citron Green with a matte black bonnet also with the registration number SLW 287R.

It is possible that this Mini was the one (registration ACW 497V) that was supposed to have been crushed in the episode and that Bean took it in as his own after his was destroyed by the tank.

Cast[]

• Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean
• Suzanne Bertish as the art teacher
• Cindy Milo as the nude model in the art class
• as the boy chemistry lab
• Christopher Ryan as judo student
• Lucy Fleming as the angry teacher with the boy
• David Schneider as the judo instructor
• as the electrocuted woman
• as the man in school corridor
• John Clegg as the calligrapher
• John Barrard as the stamp collector
• Al Ashton as ACF Drill Instructor
• Robin Driscoll as Man in School (uncredited)

Censorship[]

Due to half-nudity featured in the scene, some portions were cut for the broadcasts on the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, namely the end of Act 1, when the lady's skirt reveals her legs and underwear, and shots involving the nude model in the art class, while ABS-CBN pixelated the model's back. On Boomerang Australia, the scene where he searches for his trousers was cut out.

Production[]

There were three cars crushed during filming. Two cars were specifically built for filming this episode and were painted with the same colour scheme as the main car; but with the engines removed. One of these two Minis was also used for the part where Mr. Bean substitutes his car with the identical car (registration ACW 497V). One of the three main cars with the engine removed was also crushed by the tank.^[3]

The art class scene in Act 3 inspires an episode of Mr. Bean: The Animated Series titled "Artful Bean" while one part of Act 1 where Mr. Bean tried to use the Van de Graaff generator is reused in the episode "Gadget Kid". The Mini identical to Mr. Bean is possibly inspired the episode "Double Trouble". The chemistry scene in Act 2 possibly inspires the episode "Back to School" of Mr. Bean: The Animated Series. The scene where the Army Tank crushes Bean's Mini is also similar to the scene in the episode "Car Wars" of Mr. Bean: The Animated Series where the machine in Dickle Dickie's Garage had Bean's Mini turned into a box.

References[]

External links[]

• "Back to School Mr. Bean" at IMDb