Mind the Baby, Mr. Bean

Act 1: The Baby

For a weekend, Mr. Bean goes to an amusement park at Southsea, Portsmouth, but has difficulty finding it, especially after some people at the beach give him contradicting directions, but is eventually successful in locating the amusement park. However, he accidentally leaves his Mini's boot unlocked and the handle pulls a baby's pram with it to the funfair. Once Bean notices the "kidnapped" baby, he initially attempts to leave it in a crowd of chatting mothers with babies, but they obliviously leave the baby behind, and Bean reluctantly goes back for him. Bean, however, sees a policeman outside the amusement park entrance and races to find him, but loses him amongst a crowd of teenagers buying fake police helmets from a gift shop. Bean eventually realises that he has no choice but to look after the baby while enjoying himself. Bean unchains a guard dog and uses the chain to tie the baby's pram while taking the baby with him on various rides. First, he goes to the dodgems, but in his hurry to pay the man in charge, he puts the baby's feet on the pedal and has difficulty getting back to the dodgem by riding on the back of other dodgems and driving his own while standing up. The man in charge stops the dodgems and confronts Bean, who manages to hide the baby and sneak off.

Act 2: The Kiddie Ride

Bean finds a Postman Pat kiddie ride and decides to let the baby ride in it to cheer it up, but then puts nine coins in it so it will play indefinitely and keep the baby safe while he can have his fun on his own. Bean goes on a roller coaster, but quickly gets bored and falls asleep (though he is frightened by someone awakening him). He then goes to an archery stall, and accidentally shoots the employee watching over it in the head before running off. He tries his hand in an amusement arcade and cheats by repeatedly hitting the machine, though he gets his comeuppance when a young boy quickly steals his prize. Meanwhile, a long queue builds up by the kiddie ride. Bean, apparently oblivious to the queue, tries to put more coins in when an angry mother confronts him and makes him take the baby out. Disgruntled, Bean obeys.

Act 3: The Squeaky Toy

While walking the baby in his pram, Bean detects a bad odour and, after wondering what it is and seeing that it is not coming from him, realises that the baby needs its nappy changed. Unable to find any fresh nappies, Bean steals a teddy bear from a little girl, cuts the stuffing out and uses it as a makeshift nappy for the baby, while leaving the real nappy to be blown about the funfair and end up on various people's faces. Unfortunately, the baby begins crying again and Bean tries to calm him with his squeaky toy, but the guard dog he set free earlier on follows the noise (comically barking each time Bean squeaks the toy) gets close to the baby. Though the dog means no harm towards Bean or the baby, Bean lures it into a ticket booth and locks it inside. In order to cheer the baby up, Bean cheats in a game of darts by prematurely piercing cards with his darts and throwing them in such a way that it appears he hit a card with all three darts, winning a goldfish. But the plastic bag carrying the fish leaks, and when the water fountain proves to be not working, Bean desperately puts the fish and the remaining water in his mouth to keep it alive. He then plays a game of bingo and wins, and by nature, swallows the water and the fish to shout "Bingo", but then he vomits the fish and the water out and the fish lands in a fishbowl with another goldfish (which Bean notices and smiles at).

Later on, the baby begins crying again, and this time, nothing Bean can does calm him down. Bean buys lots of balloons and ties them to the pram, but the balloons carry the pram into the sky while Bean is paying the vendor. In panic after seeing this, Bean steals a bow and arrow from the archery game, sharpens the tip of the wooden arrow with a pencil sharpener and fires it, popping some balloons and allowing the pram to land right in the same spot Bean accidentally took it from, where the baby's mother is complaining to the police. The mother is reunited with the baby, much to Bean's relief. Bean almost forgets to return the squeaky toy to the baby, but realises how much he will miss the baby and decides to keep the toy to remember his little friend. Satisfied about returning the baby to his mother, Bean starts to drive home, unaware that the guard dog, having escaped from the ticket booth, has sneaked into the back of his Mini after Bean squeaked the toy. As he drives off, before Bean squeaks the toy again and the dog barks, shocking Bean.

Production

The entire episode was filmed on location at Clarence Pier, Southsea. This is one of only two episodes to be filmed entirely on location, to feature only one storyline and also the last episode to be directed by Paul Weiland.

Music

The song played at the dodgems is Mud's 1974 UK No. 1 hit "Tiger Feet" and Johnny Kidd & the Pirates' 1960 hit "Shakin' All Over" is played on the waltzers.

Broadcast

Mind the Baby, Mr. Bean was originally due to air on the ITV network on 1 March 1993, but was delayed for over a year as it was considered distasteful following the murder of Kirkby toddler James Bulger on 12 February 1993.

The eventual first transmission of the episode – on Monday 25 April 1994 – did not include an ad break as a mark of respect, in spite of being broadcast over a commercial network.

Legacy

A clip of the scene where Mr. Bean puts the balloons on the pram was shown to illustrate the expected result of a myth in MythBusters; the myth that a large number of balloons could lift a small child into the sky. It was proven to be plausible, although an impracticably large number of balloons were needed.