‘Please look after this bear. Thank you.’ 

Written by Gabrielle Wilkinson

With Paddington Bear’s anticipated arrival in London’s West End later this year at the Savoy Theatre, let’s take a trip down memory lane to the first television programme developed from the Paddington Bear stories! 

Where it all began 

It is Christmas Eve 1956. A man spots a teddy on a shelf in Selfridges. Feeling sorry for the poor little bear, the man buys him as a Christmas present for his wife. Unbeknownst to him, the bear will become a worldwide phenomenon… 

Michael Bond’s name has become synonymous with the creation of the delightful Paddington Bear, with the books selling over 35 million copies worldwide and translated into 40 different languages. Bond credited the inspiration of the refugee bear to his childhood memories of children being evacuated from London with labels around their neck. From this, he came up with the famous tag around Paddington’s neck, which reads, ‘Please look after this bear. Thank you.’

The ins and outs of the show 

The animated TV show ran from 1976-1980 in the form of 5-minute shorts shown before the evening news. It followed the story of a Peruvian bear and the Brown family who named him Paddington after the London railway station in which he was found. Produced by FilmFair and using stop-motion, Paddington was a puppet in a three-dimensional set narrated by Michael Hordern, who brought his distinctively polite English voice to life. 

Viewers follow the bear’s misadventures, which see him getting into spots of trouble including flooding the bathroom and knocking over a camera whilst taking a family picture! Personally, my favourite episode is ‘A Shopping Expedition’. The episode sees Paddington embark upon a shopping day out in London to buy some new pyjamas, eventually deciding on a white pair with red, yellow and blue flowers. In classic Paddington fashion, he climbs into the store bed thinking it’s there for people to test out their pjs, before waking up from his nap to a sea of faces staring at him through the department store window! 

Paddington is synonymous with politeness, hard stares and of course, marmalade sandwiches. However, his most distinct feature is his hat. Paddington’s hat has taken multiple forms: black, yellow and red. If you were to ask the majority of the British public which colour they associate with Paddington, it would be an educated guess to predict most would say the red hat. Whilst the red version may win the popular vote, I will always remember him as the 1970s version with his distinct black hat. The books actually only described his hat as ‘rather dirty coloured’, not mentioning any specific colour, but when Paddington came to our screens, show creators decided to use black, and something about it will always be my favourite version of him. Perhaps I am biased from it being the first version of Paddington I remember, though I strongly believe the preference is due to how the black compliments his blue duffle coat perfectly, with a finished look I find more refined than the other versions. 

A timeless tale

One of the main reasons I love Paddington is that his timeless charm transcends generations to keep him as the nation’s favourite bear. Despite my being born over 20 years after the show’s finale, the series was integrated into core memories of my childhood. Those red boots were there when I opened my eyes for the first time and every day when my mother got home from school, a sweet reminder that whilst many factors in life are uncertain, Paddington is always there. 

A message to the future children of the world: ‘Please look after this bear. Thank you.’