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"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 1 January 1991 and was watched by 13.8 million viewers during its original transmission. It won the 1991 International Emmy Award for Outstanding Popular Arts Programme.

Plot

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Act 1: The Swimming Pool

Bean visits a local swimming pool and parks in the adjacent car park. After a lifeguard admonishes him for trying to use one of the children's slides, his gaze shifts towards the diving boards and he decides to dive off the highest one, but is overcome with fear after realising how high it is. As two boys watch, Bean tries to climb off the edge, until he is left hanging by a solitary hand. One of the boys decide to stomp on his hand, causing him to plummet into the pool. Upon surfacing, Bean finds that his swimming trunks have come off, and a girl fishes them out with a snorkel just as the lifeguard orders everyone to exit the pool premises. As he tries to reach the changing room in his state of undress, Bean inadvertently crosses paths with a group of female swimmers, who scream in terror.

After drying and changing back into his clothes, Bean finds that he must pay a £16 fee to exit the car park. To avoid paying, Bean pushes a wheeled rubbish bin into the entrance to trick the ticket machine into issuing a ticket to open the gate. Just as he moves the bin out of the way, another vehicle drives in and forces him to reverse. Bean suddenly spots the blue Reliant approaching the entrance; as the driver takes a ticket 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.

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 spin it dry, 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, putting a teabag into it while placing the bottle's stopper in his ear. He then transfers milk from a baby bottle via his mouth to the hot water bottle. As he prepares to eat his sandwich, he tucks his handkerchief into his shirt to use as a napkin, only for the pepper on it to cause him to sneeze, making him drop his sandwich onto the ground and spray his tea all over himself. 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 turn left by dismounting and wheeling his bike through, he opts to do the same with his Mini.

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 stopping her doing the same to him. 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 container 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, Bean fails to notice that Irma put her coat over her like a cape, causing the pair to scream in fright when Bean finds her coat sleeve empty, ending the episode.

Cast

• Rowan Atkinson − Mr. Bean
• Angus Deayton – pool attendant; man on the park bench
• Matilda Ziegler – Bean's girlfriend

Production notes

The swimming pool sequence was filmed at the Hayes Pool and Fitness Centre, rebuilt and renamed in 2010. with the car park sequences at the Heathrow Bowling car park and the short traffic lights scene in Twickenham at the junction of Staines Road, Hospital Bridge Road and Sixth Cross Road.

This was the last episode to be produced with OB videotape for exterior scenes utilising OB7, a two-camera unit designated for drama and light entertainment shows by Thames. 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.

The remastered version of the episode replaces the original black and white opening title with the standard "street" version.

References

1. "Listings Tuesday, 1st January 1991". tvrdb.com. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
2. The DVD-laser Disc Newsletter. Vol. 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 ...
3. "1991 INternational Emmy Awards Bestowed in New York". AP News Archive. 26 November 1991. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
4. "Awards". tigeraspect. Archived from the original on 16 June 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2013.

External links

• "The Curse of Mr. Bean" at IMDb

• Mr. Bean episodes
• 1990 British television episodes
• Television shows written by Rowan Atkinson
• Television shows written by Richard Curtis
• Television shows written by Robin Driscoll