Mr. Bean (Mr. Bean episode)
| "Mr. Bean" | |
|---|---|
| Mr. Bean episode | |
| Episode no. | Episode 1 |
| Directed by | John Howard Davies |
| Written by | |
| Produced by | John Howard Davies |
| Featured music | "All Creatures of our God and King" |
| Original air date | 1 January 1990 |
| Running time | 25:53 |
| Awards | Golden Rose |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
"Mr. Bean" is the first episode of the television series Mr. Bean, the only episode written by Ben Elton, and featured three sketches including Mr. Bean trying to cheat in an exam, and dealing with a boring church service. The episode, a pilot at the time, was watched by 13.45 million viewers when it originally aired on ITV on 1 January 1990, and did not include title cards; these were included within the remastered DVD release of the episode. Rudolph Walker, who appears in this episode, would later co-star with Atkinson in The Thin Blue Line, while there is a cameo appearance by theme music composer Howard Goodall.
Heading for an important maths exam, Mr. Bean races in his Mini to the college he has been attending, running a blue Reliant Regal off the road and nearly overturning it. Arriving within the classroom the exam is taking place in, he finds himself sitting down next to a student (Paul Bown) who is preparing to tackle his exam on calculus, in direct contrast to himself as he had revised for his on trigonometry. Upon the invigilator (Rudolph Walker) announcing that the exam will take place in two minutes, Bean prepares for it by producing a pen, then a few more, before bringing out an obscene amount of spares, along with two toys and an alarm clock that he sets for when the exam has finished. Upon the exam starting, Bean finds to his horror that an envelope on his desk contains a paper on calculus and not trigonometry, the subject he had been revising, and becomes frustrated on how to complete it. Seeking to overcome this issue, he opts to cheat by copying the other student's work, only to fail badly at every attempt he makes to see what his fellow student has written, eventually making himself give up and let the exam come to an end. As it nearly does, the invigilator gives instructions to the students on what to do with their papers, effectively making Bean realise there had been two exam papers in the envelope – one for calculus on green paper, that he removed, and another on white paper covering trigonometry, which he hadn't noticed. Frantically, he removes the paper and attempts to complete it, only to run out of time to do so, just as his alarm clock goes off.
Following his exam, Bean heads to the beach, running the Reliant Regal off the road once again in the process. Reaching the beachfront, he looks forward to his swim in the sea, but finds himself unable to change into his swimming trunks without exposing himself to a man (Roger Sloman) wearing sunglasses sitting in a nearby deckchair. Not wishing to travel back up the steps he climbed down in order to change, he devises a clever plan to get into his trunks without being exposed. Bean manages to removes his trousers, after putting his trunks over them, managing to carefully remove them while ensuring the man doesn't notice anything odd when glancing over. Although this plan works, the man soon reveals he was blind, upon picking up his white cane as he leaves the beach.
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