Mr. Bean in Room 426

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"Mr. Bean in Room 426" is the eighth episode of the British television series Mr. Bean, produced by Tiger Television and Thames Television for Central Independent Television. It was first broadcast on ITV on 17 February 1993 and was watched by 14.31 million viewers during its original transmission.^[1] This was the first episode to consist of a single story line and was shot entirely on location in Southsea.

Plot[]

Act 1: Checking In[]

Mr. Bean decides to stay at the Queens Hotel for a bank holiday. He parks his Mini at the foot of the entrance stairs and fights with a bellboy over his suitcase, mistaking him for a thief, although he later trusts the bellboy with his steering wheel to move his Mini to a parking spot. As Bean checks in, a quiet man checks in as well and Bean tries to beat the man to his hotel room, but the man gets to the lift before him. In retaliation, Bean runs up the staircase and stops the lift on every floor. He almost succeeds in entering his room first, but struggles to unlock his door and the man ultimately enters his own room first.

Once inside his room, Bean starts toying with his new surroundings in several different ways, such as flicking the light switch on and off rapidly, making a call on the telephone, and testing the remote control's signal range, and drilling holes in the wall to hang pictures. He then decides to have a bath, but realises his room doesn't have a bathroom. Bean then hears running water in room 425 and learns that that room has an en suite bathroom. Once the man in room 425 leaves, he uses his drill to cut a giant hole in the bathroom wall. The vibration travels all the way to the lobby, prompting the manager to investigate. Just as he knocks on the door to Bean's room, the man in room 425 complains that he cannot get the door open. The manager futilely tries to turn the handle and apologises to the man, suggesting that it may be jammed. It turns out that Bean has locked the door and is taking a bath. Once he is finished, he hides the hole with his wardrobe and the curtains in the bathroom.

Act 2: The Rotten Oysters[]

At lunchtime, Bean tries to beat his neighbour to the dining room, only to find that the lift is out of order. He goes to take the stairs, but gets stuck behind a slow-moving elderly woman.^[2] He climbs onto the opposite side of the banister to get past her, but ends up behind an equally slow-moving elderly man with two walking sticks (presumably the lady's husband). Now stuck between the two with insufficient space to repeat the same tactic, Bean is forced to go down slowly.

Once he reaches the restaurant, Bean cheats his way to the front of the queue and proceeds to take whatever food his neighbour is taking from the buffet, albeit double the quantity. He then sits down next to his neighbour and gluttonously eats whatever the neighbour is eating at a certain time. When the neighbour starts to eat his oysters, Bean gobbles all of them down, but the neighbour notices an odd smell coming from his oysters and asks the headwaiter about it. The headwaiter says that they have gone off and apologises to the neighbour. Upon seeing this, Bean realizes that he has just ingested rotten oysters and begins to feel nauseous.^[3]

Act 3: Locked Out[]

That night, Bean has a nightmare that involves the neighbour and the waiters laughing at him menacingly and forcing him to eat the rotten oysters. After waking up, he feels hot and removes his pyjamas. He is about to go back to sleep when he hears loud music coming from room 427. Without putting any clothes on, Bean goes outside, knocks on the door and shushes loudly. The music stops and he walks back to his room, but his door closes and locks itself, leaving him trapped outside completely naked. Knowing he will be arrested for public nudity if seen, Bean panics and hides. He runs for the stairs while covering himself with door signs, but finds the same elderly lady there, so he goes back up and sneaks past a couple to the lift by crawling under the carpet.

Once the lift reaches the lobby, Bean sneaks into the manager's work space as the manager is talking to Danny La Rue, who is performing at the hotel. When the performer goes to give the audience an encore, the manager gives the porter the car keys and tells him to bring La Rue's trunk to his car. The manager goes back to his workspace and almost sees the suitcase moving several times, as Bean is hiding in it. The porter comes back and locks the suitcase, but drops it on the front steps as he is bringing it to the car. Mr. Bean then shows up at the counter in a sparkly gown, a wig, and lipstick, asking for the key to room 426. As the manager gets it, La Rue approaches Bean angrily and says to him, "Here, that's my frock," and yanks an earring off Bean's ear, causing Bean to cry out in pain.

Cast[]

• Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean
• Matthew Ashforde as the hotel porter
• Michael Fenton Stevens as the man in Room 425
• Roger Brierley as the hotel manager
• Danny La Rue as himself

Production[]

This was the first episode to incorporate only one storyline instead of separate acts or sketches as well as the first to be shot entirely on location. The episode was filmed at the Queen's Hotel in the seaside resort of Southsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire. Principal photography began on 1 October 1992.^[4]

It was also the first full episode to be directed by Paul Weiland, previously the series' specialist director for film sequences. Another episode-length story, Mind the Baby, Mr. Bean, was also filmed in Southsea.

This was also the first episode to be commissioned and presented for the ITV network by Central Independent Television following the loss of Thames' ITV franchise in London. Central would also oversee commissioning and compliance for a number of other Thames independent productions, such as Minder, Wish You Were Here...? and Strike It Lucky, until the ITV Network Centre removed the requirement for a 'commissioning company' in the late 1990s.

"Homeless" from Mr. Bean: The Animated Series was inspired by this episode. The last scene also inspired the episode "Opera Bean" where Bean wears a lady's frock.

The ending of the second act, in which Mr. Bean realises that he ate spoiled oysters is the reason why he does not like them in Mr. Bean's Holiday. Another scene in the film that alludes to this episode is that he passes by a kissing couple at Gare de Lyon as he leaves the restaurant when he overhears the screams of a woman who found oysters in her purse while picking up her cell phone, whereas, in this episode, he passes by a kissing couple underneath the hotel rug while naked and locked out of his hotel room.

Censorship[]

Some scenes of Bean naked during the final part of the episode were edited out for broadcasts on Disney Channel and Philippine network ABS-CBN. This episode was never broadcast on Nickelodeon UK, possibly due to Bean being naked for the majority of the last act.

References[]

External links[]

• "Mr. Bean in Room 426" at IMDb