Mr. Bean in Room 426

"Mr. Bean in Room 426" is the eighth episode of the television series Mr. Bean that first aired on ITV on 17 February 1993.^[1] It was produced by Tiger Television.

Plot

Act 1

For a bank holiday weekend, Mr. Bean decides to stay at the Queens Hotel, but parks his Mini by the entrance and fights with the bellboy over his suitcase, believing him to be a thief, although he later trusts the bellboy with his steering wheel to move his Mini to a parking space. As Bean checks in, a quiet man checks in as well and Bean becomes determined to beat the man to his hotel room (room 425), 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 due to a faulty lock, the man ultimately enters his room before Bean enters his.

Once inside his room, Bean immediately starts investigating and personalizing his new surroundings, such as flicking the light switch on and off rapidly, jumping on the bed, changing the lamp shade for his own, placing his own curtains on the window, placing Teddy in his makeshift "bed" in the drawer and accidentally decapitating him in the process, using a drill to hang his own picture frames on the walls (the noise can be heard throughout the hotel), and playing with the television remote control, which he initially believed to be a telephone (as his own television at home has no remote control).

Bean tests the remote control's signal range and turns the volume up once he is outside his room until his other neighbor (In room 427) comes outside to investigate the noise. Bean hides the remote in his jacket and pretends to tell the guest inside room 426 to be quiet, and goes back inside once the neighbor is gone. Back in his room, Bean decides to have a bath but realizes his room doesn't have a bathroom. Bean then hears the sound of water running in room 425, and using glass to listen through the wall, he is annoyed to discover that room 425 has a bathroom whilst his doesn't. Once the man in room 425 leaves, Bean uses his drill to cut a giant hole in the wall in order for him to gain access to the bathroom.

Once again, the noise is heard throughout the hotel, and the vibration travels all the way to the lobby and dining area, prompting the manager to investigate where it is coming from. Just as he knocks on the door to Mr. Bean's room, the man from room 425 complains that he left his watch in the bathroom but can't get the door open. The manager also tries to turn the handle (in vain) and apologizes to the man, suggesting that it may be jammed.

However, it is revealed that Bean has locked the door and is in the bath tub quickly washing himself. He then finishes and hides the hole with his wardrobe and the curtains from the bathroom. The manager then says that he will have someone come and look at the man's bathroom door just as Bean peeks out of his room wearing nothing but a towel to see what all the fuss is about. The manager notices this as Bean heads back into his room and gives him a suspicious look.

Act 2

At dinnertime, Bean again tries to beat his neighbor to the dining room by knocking on his door and then running off, only to find that the elevator is out of order. Annoyed, he goes to take the stairs, but becomes even more annoyed when he gets stuck behind a slow-moving elderly lady with a crutch. Instead of simply asking the lady to let him pass, he decides to go around to the other staircase, but becomes further annoyed when he somehow ends up stuck behind her again. He then contemplates pushing her, but stops himself when he hears a couple walking past.

Fed up knowing that it is a big staircase and that he could be there for a long time, he takes a risk and climbs onto the opposite side of the banister to finally get past her. But his victory is short-lived when he ends up behind an equally slow-moving elderly man with two crutches. Now stuck between the two with insufficient space to repeat the same tactic and still feeling unable to ask for space to pass, Bean is forced to go down slowly.

Once he reaches the dining area, he takes a plate and cutlery and sees his neighbor three people ahead of him in the queue. So, he cheats his way to the front by knocking the cutlery and napkin from the two people in front of him. Now behind his neighbor, he proceeds to copy what food he is taking from the buffet, but in bigger quantity and even going so far as to fill an entire plate with oysters, and putting back what the man puts back. Bean then steals the table that his neighbor was going to sit at and starts imitating him drinking water and using a napkin before putting an obscene amount of salt onto his food.

He then gluttonously eats whatever the man is eating at a certain time. When the man starts to eat his oysters, Bean inhales all of his without even tasting them. But the man notices an odd smell coming from his and asks the restaurant manager about it. The manager smells them, apologizes, and says that they are off. He then goes to collect the plate of oysters from the buffet, and is repulsed by the smell. Bean sees this and is horrified that he has just eaten bad oysters.

Act 3

That night, with toilet rolls and a full chest of medicines next to him, Mr Bean has a nightmare about the man and restaurant owner laughing demonically at him, and oysters being eaten nastily. He then undresses, being too hot (due to being ill), and is about to go back to sleep when music starts blasting from next door. Mr Bean looks at the alarm clock.

It is 12:05 am, so he gets up, forgetting he's naked, and knocks angrily at the door loudly shushing. The music stops, and he walks back to his room just as the door closes and locks itself. He reaches for his key, only to remember he does not have it. To make matters worse, he finally realizes that he is naked and starts to panic. Bean hides in a doorway as a couple come past from a night out.

Once they've gone, he escapes whilst using a fire extinguisher and door signs ("Private", "Exit", etc.) to cover his private parts, and avoiding people. He begins to run down the stairs, only to get stuck behind the elderly lady, yet again. So he goes back up and heads for the lift; on the way he comes across another couple making out, so he sneaks past them by crawling under the carpet. He then enters the lift, but the door closes on the string by which he is dragging the "Exit" sign along with him. We then see the floor numbers go down and hear a lady screaming.

Down in the lobby, Mr Bean peeks out the lift and sneaks out with "Out of order" and "No entry" signs, into his work space. Meanwhile, the manager is talking to Danny La Rue (playing himself), saying his show was marvelous and that they love him. The performer delightfully goes back in to give them another encore. The clerk then gives Matthew (the porter) the keys to the car and tells him to bring them to Mr La Rue's car. Meanwhile, Mr Bean gets the keys to his room from the front, and hides behind a pole as Matthew parks the suitcase and leaves.

The manager gets back behind his counter and almost sees the suitcase moving several times (Mr Bean being in it changing). Matthew then comes back and locks the suitcase, and brings it out to the car, dropping it on the stairs. Just then, Mr Bean shows up at the counter in a sparkly gown and wig and lipstick, saying "426 please", and the manager replies "certainly, madam".

Right at that moment, Danny La Rue walks by, noticing his stuff is being worn. So he approaches angry as Mr Bean adjusts his chest, and says to him "Here, that's my frock" and yanks the earring off Mr Bean's ear, and Bean cries out in pain.

Continuity

Bean has framed pictures of the Flying Scotsman and Shirley Bassey.

Production

This is the first episode to incorporate only one storyline instead of separate acts / sketches as well as the first to be shot entirely on location. The episode was filmed at the Queen's Hotel in seaside resort of Southsea, city of Portsmouth, county of Hampshire, England. Principal photography began on 1 October 1992.^[2] "Mr. Bean in Room 426" was one of two episodes in the 'street opening' era that were not directed by John Birkin.

Instead, all scenes were directed by Paul Weiland, who previously shared directing credits with Birkin in episodes 4–6. The ending credits read, "Mr. Bean was in Room 426". When Mr. Bean plays with the remote control, a few lines from the film Algiers by actor Charles Boyer can be heard.

Broadcast and reception

14.31 million watched this episode on the original transmission.

Censors

Some explicit scenes of Bean naked during the last frantic moments of the episode, were edited out on Disney Channel and Philippine network ABS-CBN, and some later television airings for censorship purposes. This episode was never shown on Nickelodeon UK, presumably due to Bean being naked for the majority of the last act.

Legacy

The lift percussive organ music Mr. Bean dances to in the hotel lobby resembles the Mario Paint "pushups" song and was used in a WLIW intro. "Homeless" from Mr. Bean, The Animated Series was inspired by this episode. The last scene inspired "Opera Bean" from "Mr. Bean, The Animated Series" where Bean wears a ladys frock.

References

External links

• "Mr. Bean in Room 426" at the Internet Movie Database