Mr. Benn

Mr Benn has been invited to a fancy-dress party. He dislikes parties, but enjoys dressing up, so he looks round the shops for a costume to wear, but everywhere he finds only ordinary everyday clothes. Turning into a small lane on his way home, Mr Benn comes across a costume shop where he chooses an outfit of red knights armour. Changing into the armour, Mr Benn passes through another door in the shops changing room and finds himself in another world where he stumbles upon a dragon...

Seeing some children playing in the street with balloons, Mr Benn decides on a visit to the costume shop. After donning a suit and top hat he finds himself in a crowd of spectators at a hot air balloon race. Seeing that one of the contestants is on his own, Mr Benn offers to accompany him on the flight; the man accepts, but warns that they will probably lose to a cheat named Baron Bartrum. The signal is given and the balloons try to take off ; however, only the Baron’s balloon succeeds, as the rest have all been sabotaged – including Mr Benn’s balloon, which is tied to a drainpipe. Mr Benn decides to teach the Baron a lesson: that cheaters never prosper…

Strolling in the park, Mr Benn sees a kite. Deciding to try a trip into space, he returns to the costume shop, puts on a spacesuit, and steps through the changing room door… into the cockpit of a spaceship that is about to blast off! Together with the vessel’s two crewmen, Mr Benn travels through space, eventually arriving on a planet festooned with precious minerals and jewels; however, a dejected man dressed in rags tells them that the treasure will turn to rocks as soon as they leave, and he suggest that they try the next planet, which has everything they could want - and for free. The three astronauts travel to this world, but although the planet’s goods and food are indeed wonderful, everything is in black and white. The next planet is too noisy, and the one after that is too hot. Mr Benn soon realises that there is no place like home…

Feeling trapped inside his house, Mr Benn heads off to the costume shop for an adventure. After the shopkeeper gives him a blue uniform and hat, Mr Benn wonders what he will be; stepping through the changing room door he finds himself at a zoo, and realises that he must be the zookeeper. However, all the animals in this zoo are sad and unhappy. A parrot explains that the animals are miserable because their cages are too small - so Mr Benn decides to turn the tables on the zoo’s visitors, by showing them what it is like to be locked up…

Fed up with the noise of the traffic outside his house, Mr Benn heads off for the costume shop. Putting on a caveman’s animal skin, he steps into a prehistoric land and meets a tribe of cavemen sheltering inside some cramped caves. Just as Mr Benn asks why they do not sit on the grass outside, he narrowly avoids being trampled into the ground by a hoard of stampeding dinosaurs. When the cave people explain that they have to put up living in the caves because there is nowhere else to live, Mr Benn decides to give the tribe a lesson in building construction…

Having spent some time by the river watching the boats go byMr Benn sets off for the costume shop and tries on a frogman’s suit. On leaving the changing room he arrives on a rocky shoreline, but when he dives in and begins to explore the water, he is soon interrupted by the crew of two submarines, who are each searching for a sea monster. Mr Benn then encounters a beautiful mermaid, and helps her to find a seashell for her undersea kingdom’s ruler. Paying a visit to King Neptune, Mr Benn learns that the monarch and his pet sea monster are no longer able to go out because of the nuisance the two submarines are causing in their attempts to photograph the creature. Mr Benn comes up with a cunning plan to trick the sailors into believing they have seen the monster, so that they will then go away…

The children of Festival Road are playing cowboys and Indians; meanwhile, Mr Benn cannot face the long queue to see a Western movie at the local cinema. Instead, he goes to the costume shop and tries on a cowboy outfit; after leaving the changing room, Mr Benn arrives in the Wild West, where some cowboys and Indians are taking part in a friendly game of Hide-and-Seek. But when Mr Benn learns that the cowboys have never won a game, he decides to make sure that this time, they do…