Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean

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"Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean"
Mr. Bean episode
Episode no.	Episode 7
Directed by	John Birkin
Written by	Robin Driscoll Richard Curtis Rowan Atkinson
Produced by	Sue Vertue
Original air date	29 December 1992 (1992-December-29)
Running time	26:27
Guest appearance
Owen Brenman Matilda Ziegler John Warner Jonathan Stratt C. J. Allen
Episode chronology
← Previous "Mr. Bean Rides Again" Next → "Mr. Bean in Room 426"
List of episodes

"Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean" is the seventh episode of the British television series Mr. Bean, produced by Tiger Television for Thames Television.^[1][2] It was first broadcast as a Christmas special on ITV on Tuesday 29 December 1992^[3] as part of ITV's Christmas schedule and was watched by 18.48 million viewers during its original transmission.

This was the last episode to be co-written by Richard Curtis and the last to be broadcast by Thames Television on behalf of the ITV network. It also marks the last appearance of Mr. Bean's girlfriend, Irma Gobb (Matilda Ziegler) in the original television series until reappearing on Mr. Bean: The Animated Series eleven years later.

Plot[]

Act 1: Christmas Shopping[]

Mr. Bean ventures into town on Christmas Eve and visits Harrods to buy Christmas decorations. After parking directly in front of the store and harassing a man dressed as Santa Claus by pulling his false beard^[4], Bean goes inside and tests out two different baubles, going with the one that bounces off the ground after the other one simply smashes. He then tests some Christmas lights on a socket being used for the store's exterior lights, plunging the entire outside of the store into darkness in the process.

As the cashier sorts out his purchases, Bean notices a small Nativity display and uses it to act out a creative yet inaccurate scene with several other toys, including a Dalek, a Tyrannosaurus rex, two army tanks and a helicopter. His fun is soon disrupted by the store manager, who brings a toy policeman into the scene to halt the proceedings. The manager hands him his purchases and Bean leaves the shop.

Bean later heads to a local Christmas market, where he spots another man dressed as Santa Claus. Again he pulls the man's beard, only to find that it is real, prompting Bean to make a quick exit while the man recovers. He meets up with his girlfriend, Irma Gobb, and is dragged to the window of a jewellery shop, whereupon she points to a ring that she wants him to buy for her. However, Bean sees a picture of a couple next to the ring and heads into the shop to buy it, thinking this is what she is pointing to.

Afterwards, Bean volunteers to help the conductor of a Salvation Army brass band collect money; in doing so, he catches a young pickpocket and forces him to hand over all the items he has stolen. While the conductor goes to his car to try on some of the jewellery that the pickpocket stole, Bean finds himself conducting the band. He has them perform two renditions of "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen," one mournful and the other jazzy, earning a big round of applause from the crowd. After the conductor returns, Bean attempts to buy a Christmas tree from a stand, only to get to the stand just as the last two trees are bought. He cuts down the market's tree, attaches it to the roof of his Mini and drives home with it, while everybody at the market remains oblivious.

Act 2: Christmas Eve[]

Back at his flat, Bean cuts the top off of the stolen Christmas tree and decorates it with his lights and bauble. He writes a few Christmas cards (all of the same design) and seals them in envelopes, then steps outside and posts them to himself. Bean searches a cupboard for some Christmas crackers, and decides to take the fuses out of the other crackers and stuff them all into one, making a "super cracker."

Later, Bean hangs up three stockings in his room: one for Teddy, one for himself, and one for a mouse living in a hole. Enjoying a box of chocolates and a glass of sherry, Bean decides to watch some television, but nothing interests him. As he turns his television off, he finds a group of young carol singers performing "Away in a Manger" at his door. Deciding to watch them perform from his seat as if he was watching TV, Bean soon grows tired and rudely shuts the door on them before heading for bed.

Act 3: Christmas Day[]

The following morning, Bean wakes up in excitement and proceeds to check the stockings. Teddy's contains a tin that holds a pair of drawing pin eyes, his is a sock that has a matching sock stuffed inside, and the mouse's contains a piece of cheese (which Bean ironically sets on a mousetrap).

Bean later starts to prepare a large turkey but, while stuffing it, his watch gets lost inside. He sticks his head inside the turkey to try and find it, but the turkey gets stuck on his head just as Irma arrives. He asks her for some tea if he's having some but cannot get the turkey off. After Bean tries and fails to cover up his predicament, Bean gets a saw but Irma screams in terror. Then, Irma helps him to remove the turkey by tying it to a coal scuttle and throwing the scuttle out the window. The turkey is lost, but Bean fortunately gets his watch back.

With the turkey gone, Bean and Irma instead eat cranberry sauce sandwiches and carrot slices for dinner. Irma refuses to give Bean his present until she gets a kiss, only for him to distract her and rudely snatch it away. He unwraps his present and is pleased to find that it is a model ship kit. Bean then hands Irma her present, but her excitement turns to disappointment when she finds that he bought her the picture in the display window. When Irma begins to cry, Bean realizes that he "forgot the main bit" and produces a ring box from his pocket, much to Irma's surprise. When she opens the box, however, she discovers that it actually contains a screw-in hook meant for hanging the picture. A furious Irma storms out of the flat, leaving Bean puzzled and hurt. He then remembers his "super cracker" and decides to pull it himself. As he does so, we see a view of his window from the street, along with a loud bang and a sudden flash through the curtains.

Cast[]

• Rowan Atkinson – Mr. Bean
• Matilda Ziegler – Irma Gobb
• C. J. Allen - Santa outside Harrods
• Owen Brenman – Harrods clerk
• John Warner - Band conductor
• - Pickpocket

Production[]

Most of the location scenes - set in a market - were shot on videotape in Kingston. Studio sequences were recorded before a live audience at Thames Television's Teddington Studios. Following its broadcast on American cable television network HBO, this episode won the 1995 CableACE award for best comedy special.^[5][6]

A scene for this episode was cut out for broadcast but retained in the retail version^[clarify]. In the scene, Bean participates in a "guess the weight" competition, with the large turkey from the episode, being the prize, and cheats to win it by using a hidden set of scales below the counter for the competition, alongside a calculator, whereupon the turkey is thrown into the boot of his Mini once he wins it. For unknown reasons, the A&E DVD release (distributed in the US by New Video) does not contain this scene.

A number of elements were used as inspiration for other programs. The 'lights on a well known building being accidentally switched off' gag is used by comedian Peter Kay at the end of his Live at the Top of the Tower DVD, while the turkey scene was inspired for a scene in an episode of Friends titled "The One with All the Thanksgivings", and later led to an adaptation for the film Bean, though it was cut out of the international release (outside North America) and reserved for a special feature section entitled "Bean Scenes Unseen".^[7] Another turkey gag was used in the Mr. Bean: The Animated Series episode "Dinner for Two".

During the nativity scene, Bean introduces a military marching band while humming "The British Grenadiers", which is used as the theme tune to Blackadder Goes Forth, another sitcom Rowan Atkinson starred in.

Deleted scene[]

The retail version^[clarify] of this episode includes an extra scene where Bean attempts to win the turkey he eventually ended up wearing on his head. The contest being to guess the turkey's weight, he sneaks a pair of scales to the counter; having already weighed himself, he subtracts his weight from the combined weight using a Casio calculator. The person in charge of the contest is shocked when Bean guesses the exact weight (to three decimal places) and wins it. Some versions, like the A&E DVD release (distributed in the US by New Video) and the 2010 “Remastered” releases are missing this scene.

Censorship[]

The scene where Irma Gobb helps Mr. Bean to get the turkey off was also edited out when broadcast on Nickelodeon UK.

References[]

External links[]

• "Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean" at IMDb