¶ Christmas With Mr. Bean
Living with Maidly . Living with Maidly . Living with Maidly . Maidly . Living with Maidly . Hello and welcome to Living with Maidly . This is series 8 , episode 11 . We've got that one right now after all series , being confused about what episode we're on , but it's definitely episode 11 .
My name's Andrew and joining me for another Christmas edition , it's Lee Guan Liam .
Hello there . Just , you're not going to believe this . This is episode 12 , by the way , Is it ? Yeah , and that's not staged . This is episode 12 . Are you sure ?
Positive right , sorry , this is episode 12 . Brilliant . Yeah , I genuinely that weren't a joke . Yeah , that's yeah that I I honestly thought it were episode .
I thought it was 11 , but then I thought let me just double check and just open it up . And it's not .
We did uh 11 was cooking at christmas so this is 12 , so we've got 14 episodes coming this series , which you'll look at , which we'll get onto later , but this one is one that's close to Liam's heart , I believe , and it is Christmas with Mr Bean .
Yeah , it's on YouTube . It's also on ITVX . You don't need to have seen it , probably would help . And actually what I will say is this is 28, . Well , it's about 25 minutes , I think , actually without the adverts . 25 minutes of pure gold . So do yourself a favour . If you've never watched this , go and watch . Merry Christmas , mr Bean .
Yeah , tuesday 29th of December 1992 . It was released part of the ITV's Christmas schedule and was watched by 18.4 million people , obviously co-written by big Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis . Yeah , there's another one as well , I think . Isn't there Another Christmas one ?
No , another . I think there's another guy involved with it .
It just says this episode was oh sorry , this was the last episode to be co-written by Richard Curtis . Sorry , robin Driscoll , yeah , your eye was the other eye . This was the last one . Obviously , we're getting to the thing . What amazed me with Mr B ?
there are only 15 episodes ever .
Yeah , I mean . I know there's been the animated series and films I wanted to ask you that Is that canon in your mind ? What ? The animated series ? Yeah , yeah , because Rowan Atkinson thinks it's canon and I'll come on to that later , if you want .
Yeah , well , I'm glad he said that because I , I do . I I think it's it's . It's not quite the same as the originals , but it's good value . It's good when the kids have watched it . I don't mind it I've got that wrong .
It's 14 episodes and the last one was um , like a best of . So there's only really 13 episodes that they've done . First I've got 15 written down . I mean , we we don't know our numbers . Obviously , clearly we've already established that we don't even know what episode we're on um . But the first episode ever came out new year's day , 1990 .
I remember it coming out definitely . Well , I could I don't know it were really sort of one of those , I think , because I was young and it was something you could watch with your family at the same time .
So yeah , I don't know if I watched the original sort of live . Um , I do remember watching it back . It's where he goes to his exam and he's got he's done the wrong paper and he's got a Pink Panther thing and he gets changed . He has to get changed into his trunks without taking his trousers off and it turns out the guy is blind .
Classic classic , mr Bean , isn't it ? Which actually at the time ? Yeah , and to me it is still funny . I don't know if this is something like a dad's army that I kind of think you have to have that affection for . I'm not sure in like modern sort of fast paced comedy , people would love it .
I don't know , with Mr Bean I think it probably still would work , particularly for children .
I think this is one of the biggest oddities on TV , because it's nothing like anything . It's nothing like we've seen in my lifetime , obviously , laurel and Hardy and all those sort of things .
I know they're not TV shows , but that's sort of what you can sort of compare it to but for something , I bet they could never believe how big this became , because it feels like the sort of thing that they were just going to do as a one-off , because they didn't do a series . They were just episodes like four months , five months in between each other .
Yeah , it's brilliant . Let's let's get into this episode . So
¶ Mr Bean's Christmas Comedy Masterpiece
we'll start . We're not going to play many clips here , but I'm going to start with the , the theme and it's the . When he gets landed down in the spotlight , there's debate about what that particular bit means , which we'll touch on at the end .
But when he appears on screen at the start credits and there's a core , I can't say a choral theme written by howard goodall , um , and here's a choral theme written by Howard Goodall , and here's the music . Obviously , that's a choir singing in Latin . Do you know what they , what they sing there ?
mr bean , no , no well you know , oh , no , I think I might have read this is it the one and only bean , or something ?
yeah , so it's okay , homo kiais faba , it's . Behold the man who is a bean , behold the man who is .
You know we're going to be called . Well , you might have read this yourself . Uh , yeah , isn't it ? Well , his original one was called mr wyatt , which is , I presume , yeah , before , reservoir dogs . Imagine if you're fucking amazing , mr bean in that imagine he's probably more of a psychopath than all them thinking about it .
Yeah , he is more dangerous than all of them .
Yeah , um , mr cauliflower , I I yeah , mr cauliflower but I mean , I know it's obviously not realistic in the slightest , but I think mr bean works better because it is a sean bean . Do you know what I mean ? I'm not saying like it's a by not documentary about sean bean , but it's a , it's a name . No one's called david cauliflower , are they ?
If you are called david cauliflower , I massively apologize but I can't see it .
Yeah , I know what you mean . I'm laughing actually because they were talking about him , frank Skinner , once saying like because it's been shown all around the world , and they were saying did he still call ? Yeah , I don't know , as you understand . So it has travelled around the world , but they're massive . Into the episode . So this is a masterpiece .
This it really is . I think this is one of the best bits of TV we've ever touched on .
I was really , when you Look , I like Mr Bean obviously , but I don't think I've watched it for 30 years and then , literally as soon as he starts , I mean I'm probably jumping ahead , but as soon as he starts messing about with the Nativity play thing , I'll piss myself .
It's brilliant and this is compulsory Christmas TV for me . It's like there's Home Alone . I Like Arthur Christmas . Now Die Hard . Master of the .
Universe .
Yeah , and Mr Bean , and the reason for that is obviously it's Merry Christmas , mr Bean , but there's Christmas music throughout . It's such a festive episode of TV . It is Despite the fact it's mad and actually it could be a stage show this . So there's three major scenes . They don't need anything else . You could do this as an extended Christmas play , I think .
But , first scene we get him driving in his little mini . I like how the audience are laughing .
I want to ask you this you might not know , is it canned laughter ? Because some of the things they laugh at , like this bit , it's just him driving it is canned laughter , but I presume it's sort of shown to an audience .
I don't think it's just added in Because I find it funny when he just drives around in his little mini .
Yeah , yeah , well , I think to me it's almost like oh what's he going to get up to now ?
What madcap schemes is he going to get up to ?
Why does he ? Do you know any ? I mean , I know he's not a real person , but why is he constantly in like a really smart suit with like ?
what do you call jacket ? With elbow patches , a little thin tie and , uh , smart trousers .
Yeah I don't know . Tell me , liam , what elbow patches are for . I know the original meaning , but why would put someone by a suit now with elbow patches on it ?
well , you wouldn't now , would you ? I presume at the time it was sort of that was the bit that was going to be hard wearing if you were . I don't know if you're a teacher and you sat writing all day , or your elbow .
You can still find them , can't you ? You can still get them you can still find them still find them . Still find them anyway , carry on .
So he's in Harrods . I think that's where it is . I've never checked that , I've just always assumed . I mean it's sort of a sign of the times , isn't it ? Do you know where he lives Enfield ? Yeah , it's a part of Highbury , so it's sort of outskirts of London , Like I think Finsbury Park is that around there .
Yeah , around there , outskirts of London but he can drive in and out of central London and just sort of park where he wants , can't he ?
He can drive to Harrods , no problem . What well ? I found really good about this as well , I mean . So it looks so nostalgic . Obviously it is because it's not what did I say 92 or whatever it is , but it reminds . It reminds me of an old christmas . I know it should .
I know that's a ridiculous thing to say , but the way it's shot and all the festivities and , as you said , the music and stuff like that , the colors , it's like that grainy christmas . Do you know the song by paul mccartney , wonderful christmas time , guess ? Some people think it's shit . That music weirdly reminds me of an old christmas .
I think , and this is similar boom , like an old-fashioned christmas , and this is this . This is exactly the same and it's I don't know . You probably do get it now . It's probably because I were a child and I look back at this and it reminds me of it all , but , but it looks more festive than anything else .
The sound quality is probably not quite there . I don't know if you noticed as well . It's not a version I watched anyway , whether there's been a tweaked version or an AI enhanced , but it's like a sort of square TV . It's not widescreen or panoramic or anything like that .
No , no , the sides of the screen are black when you watch it , because it's a square pencil screen , um couple of early gags and there's so many gags in it and they're all good value . I think some of these , like in inferior sitcoms , these would be the big hitters and they just , they just pass by . He wants to buy some a ball .
He's buying a bauble for his tree in itself , so to test which one he wants , he throws them both on the floor . One smashes , so he just walks away . Right , yep , I'll choose the other one . There's a good little scene where he wants to test out some lights to make sure they work .
So he actually unplugs the whole outdoor lighting and sort of plunges the street into darkness Again , it's good , it funny , but it's .
It's just a minor joke in this sort of comedy yeah , and and then we get to the , the big hitter sort of scene of this scene , which you've already mentioned , which is the nativity , and the premise here is that it goes over to the window display , there's a nativity scene set up and he decides to kind of get involved and act out a little mini play for us .
I I mean this . I remember as a kid finding this one of the funniest , like sort of almost as soon as this was finished , saying , can we rewind that bit ? Like just wanted to re-watch that bit .
I don't know what my favourite bit is but even the beginning bit . You know when the soldiers come past da da , da , da , da , da , da , da da da da , it's amazing .
It's really
¶ Mr. Bean's Christmas Adventure
well done . It's obviously really well sort of researched . Researched really well , not researched , what's the word ?
sort of choreographed , I suppose yeah . Yeah , I mean it's all one take . Again , it has to be all one take , you know what I mean ? I mean there is a couple of switches where it might close up on some things , but all that is , it's just you've got . This is difficult to do in a , in a , in a podcast , in the sense .
Yeah we can't do it justice , we can't play a clip , because it's all side .
Well , there's a couple of words by Mr Bean , but there's no point of playing him .
It's basically the nativity that gets disturbed by a Dalek , some sheep in a van . There's a T-Rex behind him .
I love that when T-Rex comes in .
Yeah , it's all really well done . There's yeah , it's all really well done . There's one bit and you have to suspend your sort of reality to get on with mr b , and I fully accept that a lot of what he does doesn't make sense , but in a scene that's so well done , that could so easily be just him picking things around .
The one little bit that annoys me is when he's got a sort of pre-prepared angel gabriel on a helicopter stream yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah yeah where's the magnet come from , bean , and how quickly has he done that and how does he know the baby's going to be magnetic ?
Ruined , Ruined , Ruined . So Curtis , back to the drawing board no .
I'm willing to forgive it , I think it's a great scene and , yeah , the finishing scene is the guy who comes over as the shopkeeper and it's really well done . It's a bit cheesy , but a policeman pops up at the side . Mr B makes a huge point of demonstrators that it's not his hand .
It's like he almost can't make a bigger deal of looking at the fact that hold on , these are my two hands . Whose is that hand ? And he has to sort of follow his hand all the way up his body to realize yeah , and he has to sort of follow his hand all the way up his body to realize oh , it's the shopkeeper . You know , do you ?
recognize him from anything else that shop ? I'm about to ask you this yes , I do , and I can't pick . I can't . I know who he is , but I don't know who he is .
If you don't mean , so I I a little bit like the dave jones effect . I know who he is . I don't know his name . I know I've seen him a lot and I can't even think of his character's name . Do you know who he is ? He's in One Foot in a Grave . He was always hanging around with Mrs Warboy .
Oh shit , I think he's been in a few things as well . Yeah , he probably has .
But that's the one I associate him with . Yeah , he's always there , sort of really not overly nice guy doing it in Mr Meldrew's head . Yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah , mrs Wallboys has gone missing . She's like on his car roof or something . So that's the end of scene one . Really well done , quite short , full of Christmas music , christmas lights .
Couldn't be any more Christmas-y . It's brilliant . We move on to scene two and you think Well , it's not scene two , it's almost like Acts .
I mean this is still Act One I , because it's outdoor , basically but .
But what I'm saying is , if this was , mr , being the christmas play , the curtains would close this . You'd have to have a scene change for this bit there's only effectively two scene changes . You need you start off in the shop . Um , you change now . So he's outdoors and we've got an orchestra playing and it's being conducted by salvation army guy .
Um , brilliant again , because it's written into the story that we're just hearing Christmas music . So they're playing Christmas songs . Yeah , mr Bean decides to . He takes the collection bucket off the Salvation Army man and goes around collecting money in the crowd .
He comes across a young scallywag yeah , it's obviously been sort of pickpocketing and stealing things and Mr Bean sort of . Despite him being a complete oddball and a bit of a wimp , he can be sort of quite strict at times , can't ?
he , oh yeah , he doesn't like no-nonsense beano , no messing about , yeah he forces the kid to give up like he's got some jewellery in his mouth as well , I think . Or up his sleeve , or something sorry , go on , carry on when he puts it all in the bucket . And we were watching it , I said trouble is now , though . It'd just stab him , wouldn't it ?
This is what I was about to say .
I thought , in real life , if this guy , this young rap scallion going around nicking things and then being stopped but then again , you won't fuck about with B I would imagine him looking at you well unbelievable , you'd shit yourself .
You're also like obviously this is the bit where you see his girlfriend in it as well well , that closes out this particular bit , so the bit before that again , another bit that I love . So he hands the Salvation man the bucket who does the sort of again really stage show like overdramatic , oh God , that weighs a ton . Takes it to his car .
So Mr Bean gets to take over the orchestra for a bit .
His facial expressions here are absolutely brilliant .
The bit where he's doing Christmas songs with him and there's some really funny bits where he's doing volume control . He realises he's in charge and he can sort of test him . But yeah , there's a bit where he sort of thinks about it and he has a little whisper to the orchestra .
He starts playing like a really sort of bluesy , like da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da whine , that , that bit where he's playing that jazzy bit .
He's so cocky as well . He's like looking around like that , so I don't know . He's like looking like nodding like yep , yep , that's me doing that .
There's a little bit of trivia there , by the way , and I've not read this , this is just something I know . So I've watched versions of mr bean on tv where the bit where the salvation guy in the army at salvation army in his car , he's almost trying on the jewellery , the implication being that actually he's going to pocket all that .
Oh , really Interesting . That's not in every version .
I've seen it without that particular shot .
I wonder if they got rid of it then , because yeah ?
yeah , yeah , interesting . I don't know if anybody's got an old version that's in it or not , I'm just fast forwarding to it now .
Yeah , he's trying like a necklace on and stuff yeah .
Yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah . Well , I've definitely seen a version of it where they cut that out . I don't know if it's to do with what time .
There's another bit . They cut out on another one where he cuts Princess Diana's head off . She passed away . They got rid of that from many viewings as well .
Yeah , that's the new year's eve one , isn't it ?
yeah , yeah , yeah . And obviously after she passed away . I don't know if they do this all show that on repeats now , but certainly in the aftermath of princess diana's death . The queen of hearts um , yeah , they got . They put that scene out . Yeah , took it out .
Well , and again talking , I'm sort of saying how christmasy it all is . If you you want to watch something Christmassy , it it closes . So we've had this really funny sketch . It goes to buy a Christmas tree . At the end he can't . The woman in front of him buys two . I mean , why does she need two ? But anyway , she buys two , he can't have one .
So the final shot of of this particular act , slash scene , is at night being played by the orchestra , whilst in the background the huge Christmas tree gets chopped down and just sort of slams down to the ground .
Yeah , I knew that would come in , but it is funny .
And obviously .
The other bit that you've not mentioned is obviously his girlfriend come off . Yeah , yeah yeah , introduces his girlfriend . Or do we just sort of presume this is not the first time ?
we've seen her . She's been in other episodes .
Yeah , this is the last episode she's in actually because , as we'll get to , he ruins it .
Yeah , so she's been to Beats of Cinema together .
Irma Grob , I think her name is .
I've got Mr Beans .
Irma Gob . Maybe I've got Mr .
Beans' diary .
I've got it actually next to me now and all the way through it , so it's like it's just his life . It his life . It's like aimed at children . I got it as a kid but I still got it um , all the way through . He's like taking pictures of her .
Like you should get these pictures of her in his diary , like from like far away good , oh lovely , and stuff like that .
Yeah well , yeah , you're right actually , because what I missed there is is a key setup for the , the big yeah , which is she takes him over to the jeweler's window and points to the engagement thing and sort of says I think , think this is fantastically done .
We'll get to it . I didn't see this coming at all . So his girlfriend points at the jewellery place and at the engagement ring and then she sees him going in and she's so happy thinking , yes , she's going to propose .
Watches him go in and leaves , yeah , and then obviously we get the end of the seat . So , yeah , the last piece
¶ Mr. Bean's Christmas Misadventures
. It's at home with Mr Bean in his little flat , as I said , it's somewhere sort of in the Highbury area . Again , I'm not sure if there's actually Christmas music playing at this bit , but he's writing himself Christmas cards , isn't he the gag early on he's writing some cards .
I'm going to ask you this at the time , but I'll butt in and ask you here . I always remember feeling really , really sad for him at this point , like as I watched it as a kid and it brought back memories of him posting himself and I thought , oh , that's really .
Oh , why no one giving him christmas cards , like as a kid , as a nine-year-old or whatever it had been at the time . Yeah , but he seems quite happy . It seems like he's not . He's not like like I don't know another comedy besides like you . Oh , no one said anything .
He's delighted he's got the laughs . It's also , yeah , there is a bit of tragedy in there because , like , it ends on a sad note as well , which we'll come to . But yeah , I don't know . Actually that's a good point , because he does seem genuinely happy when he opens the cards . Is he that sort of in the moment that that they've come from himself ?
He's just got some cards . I just genuinely .
There's a little bit at the end where I feel really sorry for him and I think but I don't know because he's putting his cards up they're all identical cards , by the way , he sent himself yeah yeah , and he's putting them all up and he's absolutely delighted as he's putting them all .
But honestly , I like one of those weird things that you've not seen anything for that long . Then you watch it again you and you think , oh fucking hell . I remember how sad I felt for him there , like even as a kid , sort of posting himself Christmas cards . I say that I don't think I've received a single Christmas card this year , Liam .
No .
I haven't actually no Give generous life . You're listening , carl ?
Pilkington says once that he gets post for somebody called Bruce and he opens them all . They're all Christmas cards , so he puts them all up around his flat . I think Gervais says to him you've got cards called Bruce all around your house . Why don't you just buy a box of cards and put them up ?
And he says I don't need to , Bruce has got a lot of friends .
Brilliant , absolutely amazing . I love the idea of Bruce going around to his house as well . What's going on here , but ?
anyway . So yeah , he's right , it's his own car . It's a bit sad . I don't know if you picked up and possibly it's only because I'm aware of this from another episode of Room 426 , but in the background of his flat , next to the sort of closet that he goes to , did you notice the picture of Shirley Bassey on his wall ? I didn't actually know .
He's a big Shirley Bassey fan is that in any other episodes ?
is Shirley Bassey upset ? Yeah ?
well , when he goes to the staying room in the hotel room 426 , he takes with him some curtains , a lampshade and a picture of Shirley Bassey unbelievable yeah , so . So that made me laugh . And then short little sketch where he pulls a cracker just to sort of test it . He's got an old box of crackers and there's barely any noise or anything .
He's disappointed with that . So he constructs himself one cracker with all the sort of bangers made out of all the boxes . So he's got that prepared , um , and then he makes a start on his dinner . Oh no , sorry , sorry , I'm skipping ahead here . I've skipped through my notes there , sorry .
So yeah , he's settling down for the night , he's putting up the stockings , um , he's flicking through the tv it's late at night , with a box of chocolates , nothing on to watch , and some carol singers come to his door . Another another really funny scene . The first time you see it he goes over as they finish .
You assume he's gonna hand out all the little kids a chocolate . I just really happily slams the door in the face and that's him done for the night .
Yeah , it's that that bit . You know it's coming , so the Carol thing has come in and like so , uh , and he walks up to him , so it's really well active , Cause you know what's coming I didn't think I'd laugh , cause I thought he's such a sort of child in this moment .
So he's eyes open , he's immediately awake .
He's jumping about like a madman it's , I'm not saying he's not even dancing like I think it'd be easy , like to write . Or he's dancing around I don't even know what he's doing . I'm watching it now .
It's absolutely like it'd be hard to replicate what are his legs are moving really fast he's like well , he's like a toddler , when the toddler runs up and down , so you know like when they're just excited and getting all that energy out .
It is just joy , isn't it ?
why is he excited ?
he's got no , he's got no , yeah , any mates or any family or anything well he's present is that he's hung up his sock on the mantelpiece and the other sock is in it , so he gets a pair of socks . Yeah , a bit of a gag . He's present for his teddy , as he's bought him some eyes so he can see . So he's yeah again .
I remember finding it funny at the time , but I don't quite understand that . Has he not got any eyes , or ?
well , he gives him glasses after , don't I ? Yeah , but how did he see before , like I don't quite ?
understand that . Has he not got any eyes or what ? Well , he gives him glasses after , don't I ? Yeah , but how did he see before ? Has his eyes fallen out over time ? I don't know , but yeah , he's got some eyes .
This is the psychopath of him as well , when he puts the cheese out for the mouse and you think , oh , he's giving the mouse a present , but he's actually putting a mousetrap in it . He puts on a huge mousetrap , you know . Yeah he's so happy .
He is a psychopath . Very little dialogue in it . I think at that point he goes meow .
Yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah . Well , I'm actually quite surprised , I'm sorry , I'm quite surprised at how much dialogue we got in .
It Not there's not conversations or anything like A few bits coming up actually .
Yeah .
The most dialogue , isn't it ? And to me we get into the sort of the big hitter . Now the final piece . So he's making dinner , he's pottering about , Teddy's got glasses on watching Christmas films , I think and he's come to make the dinner . He's got the biggest turkey .
He has got the biggest turkey of all time .
It's like one that would feed I don't know 40 people or something . It's absolutely ridiculous and it's hard to think back , isn't it , I think , at the time , the only salafi ? Just because why would you have a turkey that big ? Yeah , and I think the joke is going to be well , that'll never cook in time , yeah .
He's not going to be able to . A bit like the royal family .
He's going to be in a bathtub so , yeah , he's doing his turkey , he starts stuffing it . I mean it's well acted . But once you've seen it , once , it's kind of so obvious what he does . He's stuffing it with one hand , he stuffs it with both . Quite clearly , he takes his watch off inside the turkey , which that could have been done better for me .
But anyway , the set up is he can't find his watch , so he's somewhere inside the turkey . He grabs a torch . I quite like that bit where he's sort of like trying to look into the turkey , so big , yeah , like a cave , almost like shining his torch around inside it . Yeah , yeah , yeah . And then we get the scene stolen by friends many years later .
Yeah , you're not happy with this , are you ?
He ends up with his head in the oversized turkey .
This is genuinely funny this , by the way , because it's so childish but just a man with a massive turkey on his head running around in his house is genuinely hilarious .
Yeah , it'll never not be funny to me that , and it's sort of arms and legs flapping about .
Yeah , it's like the arms , like sort of I don't know like it's brilliant .
Yeah , really good . He gets a knock on the door . It's his girlfriend . Some great lines here , like she comes in and says , have you got the turkey on ? And he says , well , you could say that yeah .
And another bit that I like is where he says a cup of tea and she says , yeah , if you're having one , he goes well , I might , yeah , well , I might , yeah , turkey on his head it's so good because he can't see anything neither .
So he's just pottering around his house like he can't .
She's not noticed yet , by the way , that she's yeah , yeah she's not noticed .
He's got this turkey . She's not actually looked at him . I don't like his girlfriend , by the way . She might come on too late .
I think she's very self-centered woman yeah , but look at , look at him . Oh yeah , no normal girl .
Look , look at your suit . Though . He might have got millions in the bank and that's my after that .
Yeah , I love the fact that , like he's trying to get his turkey off , he doesn't know what to do . His final solution and this is kind of she finds him and screams he's got a sore . Like , yeah , massive sore yeah , it could be .
All those people could pull like you're those singers . They put horror music over sort of comedies and stuff to make them more sinister . That scene I'd be shitting myself imagine someone breaking into your house on Christmas Day and you've got fucking hell being broken into . It's a man waving a saw around with a turkey on his head .
I know you think you think of yourself as a young Bruce Lee , but I think you'd be running money off that .
Yeah , you would be running , wouldn't you ? Yeah , you would be , terry . That's so surreal that you would think oh my God , what is that ? There's a turkey head man .
I can't imagine what I think . At first I presume it was someone messing around like a joke , but if you're in there , I'd be like . I'd be like , I'd be like really shitting myself .
Yeah , in a suit as well . That makes it funny In a suit .
Yeah , with elbow patches , yeah , and a tie .
So she screams , falls over . The next time it sort of goes to black and comes back . She's got plaster on her head and they're trying to get the turkey off and the solution they come up with in the end they chuck , chuck a weight out of the window with a turkey tied to it .
It pulls it off his head and he's got a watch in his mouth and he's quite pleased with himself . And then I presume , because I used to think but why does that mean they can't have any of the rest of the dinner , like because they end up having a sandwich and some carrots ?
Yeah .
So I always used to think why didn't they have the next puddings ? You don't have to .
I mean , I imagine there's vegetarians out there who don't have turkey or even substitute turkey . You have the rest of the . You know what I mean .
The rest of the stuff , yeah yeah , I can only assume it took that long getting a turkey off his head . They just haven't had time , that's .
That's where I love how serious well , they just they must have just not had time . That's like a copper , like investigating why , well , yeah , you've got a , you've got a thing . Like just haven't got the time to do it , have they ? But they both look quite disappointed . Well , he don't actually look that disappointed , does he in his sandwich , to be fair .
No , he's alright with it . I think he makes the best of the situation . He always makes the best of it yeah , and then it comes to sort of presents . So she goes and gets him this present . He's absolutely delighted it's lighted . It's like a plastic battleship you've got to stick together like like an airfix thing . What about shit ?
because it goes oh , battleship , yeah well , he says look at all those guns .
It's a line of dialogue , which is you get more than I think you do in most episodes actually yeah , yeah , yeah .
That's why I was surprised that actually watching back , how much he does say like oh yeah and then we're coming to the , the major , real funny guy .
It's all funny . The first time I ever saw this and if if you haven't seen it , I would say go and sort of watch this bit , just just the last from when they're eating the christmas dinner .
If you're not had to build up , it's probably not gonna happen I'm gonna say , yeah , I think watch it all , I'm still thinking it's really well done , though it's only 25 minutes , it's not even half an hour , so .
So it's genuinely worth watching this at Christmas .
Yeah , absolutely . But this particular bit at the end is one of the most I've laughed at a sitcom I would say I was only young at the time , but it's so well done .
¶ Mr. Bean's Christmas Misunderstanding
So she gives him the battleship and starts doing that like you know , where's my present ? So he goes over and produces this she's expecting an engagement ring . He goes over and produces this she's expecting engagement ring . It produces a flat , like a really flat sort of rectangular present which she looks confused by .
She opens it up and it's when she pointed in the jewelry shop there was a stand behind the ring of a couple , sort of what the man proposing to the woman , and it's on a cardboard piece behind the ring and that's what he's been on board . So that's this big joke . Is Mr Beans misunderstood again ?
But what's great is there's a follow on , there's another fantastic . So that on its own is quite funny that he's misunderstood , that he bought the wrong thing with good intention . He thinks he's bought what she wanted . She starts crying and he looks really sort of sad , like confused , and then he realizes ah , I know why she's sad .
And he produces a ring box wrapped up . So you think , oh , he does . Now she's really , really excited , opens up the ring box . Initially it looks like a ring . She pulls it out and it's a small hook that you can use to hang this piece of card up . It's so well done , that particular scene .
And he's really excitedly saying , look , look , it's hope you can put it here or here , and she just storms out the house .
I think that is so well written , that particular scene this is the other bit where I feel really , really sorry for him , because he says well , I wonder what was wrong with it . He has no idea what he's done wrong . Yeah again .
That's why this is not a man trying to be cheap . This is not a man . He's bought a huge turkey . He thinks he's bought the present that she wanted . He had every intention of buying a Christmas tree . He only chopped one down because somebody bought the last two in front of him .
Yeah , has he got a job .
What's his job ? No , I don't think he does have a job actually .
I'll tell you what dull scum . This is where my taxes are going . The Mr Bean buying his fucking shit . Turkey On a huge turkey .
Yeah , but yeah , you're right , it's quite sad he doesn't really know what's gone wrong . I mean , you do get the feeling , though , that within five minutes , he'll just be building his battleship again , quite happy .
But , yeah , this particular moment looks genuinely sad and we get the close out scene , which is he picks up his cracker and , uh , we see it from outside the flat , actually , and the lights just sort of flash like this huge explosions happened because of this mad , crazy cracker that he's built himself , and that's it . That's merry christ , christmas .
Mr Bean , I really enjoyed this . I'm not as into Mr Bean as you are . I forgot a lot of it , but I was really like sort of like it blew my mind how good it was Like , how well it was put together and how much I laughed in it . But this ending , it left me cold . The ending left me cold because I felt so sorry for him .
Well , as well as you're feeling sorry for him , the the choir again . Singer in latin farewell the man who is a bean . Do you think ? Does he go ? He goes back upwards , does he ?
at the end . Yeah , he goes back upwards . Yeah , he goes back into the well we'll talk about , which brings us into something that I think we both want to talk about yes , I think we've heard before
¶ The Mr. Bean Alien Theory
.
I've certainly heard before and mentioned it to you , but is mr bean an alien ?
uh , yeah , because in the animated show I don't know you've seen , but there is a scene where , um , I don't know if you know this- where I know yeah , he goes on a spaceship and there's loads of other clones of mr bean , but different teddies , and then he goes back up to space and there's an interview with rowan atkinson as well where he said they were .
They never got around to filming it , but they were going to end it with that scene where he were going to go on a spaceship .
So I think the idea is this guy's been sent to earth to try and try and find out how humans act about things or what you know , what kind of species they are , and that's why he's so curious , because he's not an idiot like I mean I've said to you before , well , I know . Because he's not an idiot Like I mean I've said to you before .
Well no , because he comes out with good solutions to things . Really , he's like you know something , maybe not good solutions , but because I said to you offline , obviously , that I think he's got dyspraxia , because he's always messing things up and he's you know what I mean . He's really clumsy .
But what I don't think he has is because he is , I think I just go fuck it , I'll fuck that up . He's so determined to get it right .
He'll come up with these really unique sort of there's no way he's got dyspraxia because where he builds that sort of seat on top of the car .
No , I don't think he has no , but by the way , this is not me saying . I sent you the theory last night . Yeah , yeah yeah , he has got dyspraxia .
I don't think he Brax here , but because he's too good , he does mess things up , but then he remakes him in a different way , I reckon if you had a mini like an armchair , some paint cans , some brooms and some string and I said , like you've got to build this to be able to drive yourself back up to Greenhill , I reckon I'd come out .
Just a car would be on fire . That'd be the only thing .
Yeah , yeah , it'd be like when doogles is funeral if you like , when doogles do not just be my car on fire like all the street , it'd be on like lights , explosions everywhere , people screaming um . But so I don't think he's got that . I do think he's an alien .
I think that's why he's so curious about , because he's always really like oh , I wonder what that is , you know , I mean all this sort of stuff , and he'll walk in . I think he's an alien . I think he's definitely an alien ?
Why is he when he's on his own ? Because that would work when he's out in public and he's kind of confused by things . But why is he dancing around like a madman for Christmas morning ? Like what ? If he's an alien ?
he seems to buy into that . Yeah , has he got into the spirit of it ? Has he got into the spirit of it ? Has he got into the spirit of sort of the humanity , if you get what I mean . He doesn't really understand . He might think people send cars to themselves .
He might think that's how it goes , you know he probably doesn't realise about the massive turkey , for instance . He probably doesn't realise that it's impossible to cook that in his little kitchen . I mean , realistically he's not going to be able to cook that but he's just seen , he's watched TV or something and he's seen other people with massive turkeys .
He's like look , aren't they like he could yeah but , yeah , I don't ?
He wears the same clothes Like , does he ?
If you're an alien trying to blend in , would you always wear a suit with elbow patches on ? I don't know if he's trying to blend in a , so I think he thinks . I suppose it does work , because you think he's looks . If you're on I don't know these you think he's on like a fact-finding mission ? Yeah , this spaceship probably don't know much about you , man .
That's why they sent mr bean down this other race and they've looked at a picture . They've seen a man in a suit which , if you had to draw a human man , you probably would put him in a suit . So they put him in a suit . That's his , that's his outfit . They put him in . Oh , everyone drives , you know .
I mean , he needs a car because that's you know what's . What's these things called road ? So you know , is it the first episode he passes his driving test ? Uh , or is that another one ? I'm not sure . To be honest , I'm sure there's one where he passes . He could be wrong with that .
Um , so I think that they've got all these things slightly wrong , but they tried to make him into a normal man , a man in a suit driving around . You know what I mean doing it , and they've just got it wrong . That's my fan theory on it .
Well , I mean , I didn't realise Rowan Atkinson had said that that they kind of almost intended to have that scene . I thought that was where the cartoon version had used a bit of artistic license to write that particular episode .
No , that was written before the cartoon , that scene that was going to be .
Well , that kind of answers it then , doesn't it ? Yeah , yeah , I didn't realise that .
And I think Atkinson sort of I mean , atkinson doesn't like playing him , does he Like ? He said he's sort of sick , which I understand . Everyone gets like that , don't they ? It's like people's biggest songs , they hate playing them , don't they Like ?
they say well , yeah , but he's also apparently retired him , but then he said , actually he can never fully retire him .
No , no , yeah , he put it like , as we said , father teddy hates that . That is his best character . But he must have to argue and I've got more to my because worldwide this man , rowan atkinson , is only really famous for being . Obviously in britain you've got .
But black had is arguably more famous , but certainly more acclaimed , I think , in britain yeah , worldwide .
But yeah , I know what you mean .
Yeah , it's all b now . So people you know , imagine him going abroad . Have you heard ? There's a really good story where he went to uh , went to buy a car and someone goes oh , you look like him , mr Bean . He goes oh , I am yeah . Yeah , he said it's like arguing for an hour .
I think he was into his ladies and stuff like that .
Do you know what his son's called , mr Cauliflower Ford , which I presume is after the car , because he's that obsessed with cars ? Ford Bean , ford Bean Now , yeah , he's a very serious man , but into his politics and things and stuff I think as well .
I think he or no , maybe not necessarily politics , but he likes to campaign about things and stuff like that Obviously an unbelievably talented man . And this Mr Bean character started in 1987 , I think , like he just did it in a stage show .
Yeah , I seem to remember that . Yeah , and it's just a one-off , I think initially .
Like you said earlier , that's kind of how it was envisaged and it just grew and yeah , I mean , it's another one really that probably they've worked it quite well because they never did more , they never outstayed the welcome in terms of the original , and then the cartoons allowed him to do a bit more wacky sort of stuff they could never have done .
How much of the cartoons have you seen ? Cause I , I have to admit I've never seen any of the cartoons Now to me . I've never seen any of the cartoons now , I've never seen any of them .
Yeah , it's , it's good , it's quite funny he's , he's kind of his landlady's , often , sort of he's at war with her a lot uh yeah , certain things like so his girlfriend's in it , the the robin reliant , the three-wheeler that's in it . So there are certain sort of ties back , but it and he does the voice for it , don't ?
I know there's not much voice work in it , but he is growing up , is that right ? Yeah , yeah , he does , and he does the voice for it , doesn't he ?
I know there's not much voice work in it , but he is rowing at it , is that right ? Yeah ?
he does and he writes . He writes for it as well . So it's all Atkinson's apparently . It's very sort of not necessarily a bad way but a bit of a control for it with the things that he's created . He's like I've seen writing backstage for the when they did Blackadder and he's very sort of serious . You know he needs to be stood here rather than over there .
You know what I mean he likes to take his clothes off a lot , as Mr Bean as well , don't he ?
I've noticed that you've mentioned this to me before .
I'm not necessarily saying there's anything seedy about it , but he loves the scene where I suppose I am , as I'm thinking it is a bit seedy , but it was a scene where he's running around with no clothes on and he meets a group of girls or a couple who scream . It seems to like that as a shot , but you know , these were different times , weren't they ?
Oh , hang on Rowan Atkinson to reprise Mr Bean in new TV spin-off . It says here Is that recent ? That's the Sun five days ago , but it's the sun . Wow , we've restarted his career before .
Yeah , he's obviously knew we were doing it .
I've put in Rowan Atkinson and the first suggestion on Google after was death . So I've put it in on Snopes because did Rowan Atkinson die in 2021 ? No , no , yeah , it's obviously come up as false , but apparently some social media page and I don't remember this at all spread a rumour that Rowan Atkinson had died .
I'm looking at it now because Mr Bean rest in peace . He said blah , blah , blah . Yeah , I don't know . Just a rumour went viral , apparently in 2021 , saying he'd died . But no , luckily he's still with us and he's still hopefully giving us some more bean . Does it still work with him being old ? He said it looks a bit creepy now himself Rowan Atkinson .
Well , he said a while ago . He said you can't have a man like that running around in his 50s . I kind of always assumed he was probably older than he was . Anyway , I think he was young . When he came out , I probably always assumed he was a bit older than he is . Anyway , I don't have any issues with that .
I've got some bad news for you . I've got some bad news for you . Once again , a misleading headline from the Sun . He's not reprising Mr Bean , he's doing man vs Baby , like a follow-up to that , as Trevor Bingley . For some reason , they put a massive picture of Mr Bean as the Rowan Atkinson's a reprised role . And it's Mr Bean .
Then it's just as nice as he's in man Vs Bee , that's it Okay well , you never know , one day we might get him back on our screens . Just before you go by the way . It would be great , wouldn't it Just before you go , mr Bean .
This isa comment on the YouTube episode , mr , a comment on the youtube episode , mr bean episodes , takes you back to my childhood , um , and for a few moments it helps me to forget my bitter present . Absolutely no reason for it at all so that was mr bean again .
If you haven't seen it , absolutely well worth the watch . Let's move on . We have some huge you could say some major news right at the end of this , this podcast . But before that , let's talk about the next episode theme . What's it going to be ?
so there's always these . We always see it , we've all seen it . Every christmas people go in oh bbc schedule , it's rubbish now christmas . I remember when it were Morecambe and Wise and it were brilliant .
What we're going to do is compare this year's Christmas Day schedule on the BBC compared to 30 years ago 1994 , for those who can't add up and we're going to decide once and for all has the BBC lost it Because there's all these people ? Why do I pay my licence fee or don't pay your licence ?
We're going to decide whether you are right to pay your license fee or not , and we're going to compare 1994 christmas day to 2024 christmas day . And we're going to release it on christmas day . And there's a good reason for that , isn't it , liam ?
yeah , that , just by the way , that's a courtesy of the radio times . We're going to look at radio times from 30 years ago and this year and compare the two . And yes , there is a very , very good reason why we're releasing it Christmas Day afternoon , because the big announcement and this is absolutely huge news .
So , yeah , the BBC will no doubt be playing the King speech , but we've gone better . We've gone one better . We've outdone them . We have got the Major Charlesles christmas speech . Yeah , that's going to be coming to you live christmas day afternoon only on the living with madley podcast .
I can't wait oh yeah , so we've got that , we have secured the rise . It's only gonna . You're like your king speeches on all the channels and it's boring . Nobody , really . I don't think anyone really bothered , are they ? What charles has got to say ? I wear the god myself a new hat , or whatever he says .
We've got the major Charles , um , he needs going to , he's got Christmas speech for us and it's live , only on , live . And we're made like , well , this is this , is this is groundbreaking , I think , and , and you know it's , it's , it's , it's it's it for this show and I thought that was as big as it gets , but this we've blown him out of the water .
I think this is the biggest thing since Ali G did his Christmas . You know his alternative Christmas speech it's certainly up there . Yeah , it's certainly up there , so but yeah , so tune in Christmas Day
¶ Christmas Day Streaming Announcement
. I know you're probably thinking I've got things to do Christmas Day . Believe me , christmas is boring after around 2 o' . You've actually done that . Love a bit of mainly we're going live .
We're going to try and time it so that the major goes pretty much live at the same time as the king . Um , that will be defined by your streaming platform , so we can't do it to the minute . But yeah , forget , forget .
King charles , come listen to major charles yeah , and I'm really looking forward to that myself . So join us on christmas day . Thank you for today , li , liam , and we will be back ready to roll on Christmas Day . Yep , sure thing see you then that'll be better snap it .
If anyone wants to get in touch with us , send us anything . Find us on Twitter at livingwithmade1 , or you can send us an email at livingwithmade1 or you can send us an email .