"Mr. Bean Rides Again" is the sixth episode of the British television series Mr. Bean, produced by Tiger Television for Thames Television. It was first broadcast on ITV on 17 February 1992.[1]
Plot
Act 1: The Man With a Heart Attack and the Postbox
Mr. Bean goes out to post a letter. After using a series of keys to retrieve his car's ignition key, he discovers that the battery is flat, so he decides to take the bus. When he reached the bus stop, the man already waiting there has a heart attack, terrifying Bean. Bean tries to revive him in various ways by stomping on him, stuffing pills down his throat, trying mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and using electric shock treatment using jump leads. The electric shock treatment initially works, but Bean forgets to remove the leads when the man offers him a handshake, resulting in him getting electrically shocked and knocked unconscious again. An ambulance arrives, and while the paramedics treat the man, Bean uses the ambulance battery to jump start his Mini. Bean drives off and leaves the ambulance disabled due to a dead battery.
Bean heads toward to a postbox, but accidentally swallows his postage stamp while driving. He offers to post a letter for a lady, even pretending to post it, but secretly keeps it to use the stamp for his own letter. He removes the stamp using steam from his car radiator and sticks it to his letter using a boiled sweet stuck in his pocket. After struggling to press the stamp down using one finger, he finally pounds it on with his fist. The postman arrives just as the lady returns to find her letter on the ground, missing its stamp. She complains to the postman, while Bean hides inside the postbox to avoid being caught. He ends up locked inside for what seems to be all day. He keeps trying to call out for attention, which goes unnoticed, even waving his tie out of the hole only to attract a Border Collie who yanks on it, nearly choking him. When he is finally released (by another postman), Bean accidentally drops his car keys down a drain and is forced to get a bus home, waiting at the bus stop with another man. The man gets on the bus, but Bean cannot as all the seats are full, forcing Bean to wait for the next one.
Act 2: The Holiday
At his bedsit, Bean packs for a holiday but he finds that his small briefcase does not have enough space for his clothes and food. He reduces the size of his belongings, often with scissors, to fit them into the case — such as a pair of trousers into shorts (before realising he already has one), breaking his toothbrush, pouring some toothpaste down the sink, taking just one sandal and packing a flannel instead of a towel, but does not have the heart to cut up Teddy. After packing everything in his small case, he reaches under the bed, only to discover that he has a larger case. However, because his small briefcase is already full, he just puts it into the larger suitcase, along with one other thing he couldn’t pack — a book.
Bean rides a train and reads the book, sitting across from another man who is also reading. When the man reaches a funny moment in his book, he begins laughing loudly, distracting Bean. Bean attempts to read his book in peace, muffling his ears to avoid the laughter, garnering strange gazes when the man looks up. He finds some chewing gum under the carriage seats, pushes it into his ears and thus, blocks out the noise. Finally, the train guard comes in and asks to check their tickets. Bean, inattentive but unexpectedly startled by his presence, accidentally throws his book with the ticket tucked inside as a bookmark out the train window, causing the man to burst out laughing once more.
Eventually, Bean boards an aeroplane, but he is forced to look after a sick boy next to him. He tries to cheer the boy up through various means: by sticking magazine bits on his face, playing with a self-inflating life jacket (it later flies out of Bean's seat), pretending to vomit and by blowing into a paper bag and trying to pop it. Realizing the bag has holes in it, he starts searching for another empty bag. While his back is turned and the plane experiences turbulence, the boy vomits into a sickness bag and offers the bag to Bean. He unknowingly takes and pops the bag between his hands, as the episode abruptly ends with the sound of the pop, leaving the outcome ambiguous.
Mr. Bean waits at a bus stop behind a man; when the bus arrives, the man gets on, but the driver turns Bean away. Determined to be the first in line for the next bus, Bean tries to push in front of a woman (Matilda Ziegler) with a baby in a pram who gets in line ahead of Bean when he steps away for a moment, and a blind man (Robin Driscoll) who pushes in without knowing. Soon after Bean manages to get to the front, several people join the end of the line, and the bus arrives.
But the bus does not stop in front of Bean, it drives on for another few yards – just far enough so that the end of the line logically becomes the front of the line. However, the door of the second bus is at the back; Bean ends up at the end of the line and is left behind again and is forced to wait for the third bus.
Location sequences for this episode were mostly shot on 35 mm film at Dalgarno Gardens in Kensington and studio sequences were recorded before a live audience at Thames Television's Teddington Studios.
The end credits of this episode is one of two to perform a volte-face: showing the reverse of the opening titles where Mr. Bean is sucked back into the sky, and the only one to do so with the street scenery. This is the last episode of to feature the name of the episode in the first opening sequence. In later episodes, the main title of "Mr. Bean" is displayed. The episode title is then displayed once the episode starts.
