Paddington Bear

Paddington Bear is one of the best-loved children's animated characters in the world. Written by British author Michael Bond, the Paddington books have been translated into 30 languages, selling more than 30 million copies worldwide.

The British public's love affair with Paddington goes back to 1958, when Bond introduced the bear from “deepest, darkest Peru” in his first Paddington novel, A Bear Called Paddington - he arrived on British shores wearing his famous blue duffel coat and hat, carrying a battered old suitcase with a magical secret compartment.

As legend has it, Paddington Bear was discovered at Paddington Station with a note saying, “Please look after this bear.” The Brown family adopted him and took him home to Notting Hill.

A totally loveable bear, Paddington is a great role model for kids, as he's always polite and kind to others. Although he's often inadvertently getting into trouble, he always maintains he "tries so hard" to get things right.

His love of marmalade sandwiches is legendary and he often carries one under his hat to eat on the move. In fact, his association with marmalade was so ingrained in people's minds that when he was commissioned to do an advertising campaign for Marmite in 2007, it wasn't very successful - although the advert has been viewed around 90,000 times on YouTube!

The author, who died in June this year at the age of 91, revealed how Paddington was based on a toy teddy bear he found in a shop. He explained how in 1956 he had been late doing his Christmas shopping and as he was rushing around the shops on Christmas Eve, he spotted the teddy bear sitting alone on a shelf. He said he felt sorry for it left in the London shop and so he decided to buy it as a present for his wife.

He named the bear Paddington because they lived near Paddington Station and soon he had an idea for a story about a talking bear. Initially, he wrote just for fun and in a style that he would have enjoyed reading when he was a child but after just 10 days, he had completed his first book. He passed it to literary agent Harvey Unna and A Bear Called Paddington was published by William Collins and Sons on 13th October 1958.

Prior to writing the novel, Bond, who was brought up in Reading, had served in the British Army's Middlesex Regiment until 1947. He had started writing short stories in 1945 while stationed in Cairo with the Army. His first story was published in the London Opinion magazine. After leaving the Army, he worked as a BBC TV cameraman, including a stint on the children's programme Blue Peter.

The Paddington books were so successful that they spawned a series of soft toys, first released in 1972. Legend has it that the first Paddington bear toy was bought for a young Jeremy Clarkson, later to become the well-known presenter of Top Gear! The first toy bears wore tiny boots manufactured by Dunlop but they couldn't keep up with demand, so the toy's creator (Gabrielle Designs) began to manufacture their own boots complete with a paw print moulded into the sole.

Paddington is so much a part of British culture, that in 1994 a Paddington Bear toy was given to French builders working on the Channel Tunnel by their British counterparts.

The final Paddington Bear book was published in April this year, just one month before the author's death. In addition to the books, Paddington Bear was made into a children's cartoon series by London-based animators FilmFair in 1975. Paddington cartoons were produced until 1997. In addition, Paddington became a symbol of the annual Children in Need charity fundraising campaign and appeared in the official video with comedian Peter Kay.

In 2007, plans were announced to make a Paddington Bear movie but it took until 2014 for the idea to come to fruition. Paddington was voiced by English actor Ben Whishaw, who had previously starred in TV series such as London Spy and in films including Brideshead Revisited in 2008 and the 2012 James Bond movie, Skyfall. The film, The Paddington Trail, was released on 4th November 2014 and 50 Paddington statues were erected around London in its honour.

The second Paddington film is again voiced by Whishaw and this time, the famous bear tries to solve the mystery of a master thief who has targeted properties in upmarket Windsor Gardens. Suspicion soon falls on a fading actor (played by Hugh Grant) who may have turned to crime.

Somehow, Paddington ends up in jail himself, where his duffel coat and hat are replaced by a rather fetching pink striped uniform. We suspect his favourite marmalade sandwiches will be in rather short supply in prison! Paddington 2 is due for release on 10th November in UK cinemas.

If you're looking for somewhere to store your marmalade sandwiches, don't put them under your hat! Instead, check out Solent Plastics' range of Really Useful boxes, where you will find a perfect solution for packed lunches. If you can't see exactly what you're looking for on our website, please give us a call.

“Bears like Paddington are very rare and a good thing too if you ask me or it would cost us a small fortune in marmalade.”