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Forget James Bond and Harry Styles. Britain’s biggest pop culture icon right now is a small bear with a fondness for marmalade sandwiches.
Paddington mania is as frenzied as it’s ever been since he first appeared in a book published in 1958. The third film in a blockbuster franchise is out this year, a stage musical is in the works and now he has set up residency in central London.
Karen Jankel, daughter of the bear’s creator Michael Bond, says, “Paddington is going from strength to strength, and I don’t think my father could have imagined that after he died it could have carried on in the way that it has.”
The Paddington Bear Experience opened at County Hall last month, just a stone’s throw from the London Eye, offering visitors a chance to step into Paddington’s world.
During this immersive show, crowds are transported from Paddington Station to number 32 Windsor Gardens – with a detour via the jungles of Peru – and to a street party to celebrate Marmalade Day with our ursine hero.
The show was directed by Tom Maller, who has specialised in making immersive versions of films with Secret Cinema for a decade as well as on Peaky Blinders: The Rise in 2022.
It was off the back of that he, and designer Rebecca Brower, were approached to create The Paddington Bear Experience. “We had just spent a couple of years in the world of guns and alcohol,” Maller says, “and we thought, ‘Oh my God, brilliant.’”
It was their first family show. “We had an incredible reference from the films. They brought Paddington back into the family living room. They captured it in such an amazing way for all generations, with adventure, curiosity and kindness. Our job was to capture that. We wanted to create a cinematic experience.”
Many people have a connection to Paddington, whether it’s from when they were young, or with their own children. Maller says his grandmother used to read Paddington to him as a child and now he is doing the same for his three-year-old son, who is excited about the new show and how “Paddington is now daddy’s close friend.”
Brower watched the films over and over as she set about creating the experience – and was even invited to spend time on the set of the third film, allowing her to physically walk through the house to make sure everything matched.
“Everything has that retro nod to it, and we brought that through with the detail. So all of the graphic design in the world, the props, and the furniture all have that nostalgic, retro feel. That was a lot of fun.”
She also went to visit the real Windsor Gardens in Primrose Hill to get an authentic sense of the pastel-coloured houses in the street, but found residents were less than welcoming. “They don’t particularly like being visited, so you need to walk quickly through!”
Visitors to the experience go through Mr Gruber’s shop – selling all sorts of Paddington merch, naturally – to find themselves on a platform in Paddington station. It is done simply but effectively, as everyone waits for the train to whisk them away to Windsor Gardens. Posters for Marmalade Day adorn the walls, old school payphones ring, and train conductors break into a conga at random intervals.
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The arrival at Windsor Gardens is a lovely moment, where guests are met by Mrs Brown before being transported into the world of Paddington: through the hall – with its memorable stencil of a tree curling up the wall behind the spiral staircase – into various rooms in the Browns’ house where there are games and activities galore.
Then, there is the bear himself. I won’t ruin the reveal but after following our hero through various rooms – and even to the Peruvian jungle – audiences get their moment with the iconic bear himself.
For immersive shows, it often takes adults a trip to the bar to loosen up. That’s not such a problem with younger audiences – precocious youngsters holler and tug at the characters’ costumes demanding attention. Clearly, improvisation will have been high up the requirements for the actors.
“With the kids, they’re there, and they are in Windsor Gardens, they’re meeting Mrs Brown and they’re going to the jungle. That, for me, is where the immersive world really works, where you have an audience whose imagination is already there,” Maller says. “Maybe the family experience is where the sweet spot is in the immersive world.”
Though largely attended by families, groups of adults have come through too, some of whom have shown him their Paddington tattoos. “They have a connection, that is to do with being accepted for who they are.”
Maller says: “For me, Paddington is about acceptance. A family in London accepted a lost bear into their home, and Paddington has that acceptance within him. Paddington accepts everyone for who they are. It’s about love, kindness and adventure. Qualities that are exciting and wholesome. And then, there’s the nostalgia.”
Paddington’s origins can be traced to Christmas Eve 1956, when BBC cameraman and struggling writer Michael Bond saw a bear all by himself in a shop and bought it for his wife Brenda. They were living near Paddington Station, which gave the bear its name.
Bond started writing stories about the bear, which were accepted by William Collins & Sons, the publisher now known as Harper Collins. A Bear Called Paddington was published in October 1958.
Since then, the Paddington series has sold well over 40 million copies worldwide, and has been translated into 40 different languages.
Bond’s daughter, Karen Jankel, was born two months to the day before the publication of the first book. “Paddington was always there, and always very real to me and my father. He was a member of the family and we literally grew up together,” she says when we meet at County Hall.
Stories from family life would make it into the stories, and if something made Bond laugh, he would jot it down on scrap paper he carried in his wallet. “There were things like Paddington wallpapering himself into his room; my father swore his father did that.”
The strength of Paddington’s popularity, while always there, has gone in waves – such as with the TV show in the Seventies, and then the first film – but now “it’s stronger than ever”, Jankel says. “With each film and with what happened with the Queen it just got bigger.”
It caused a sensation when a clip of Paddington – voiced by Ben Whishaw – having tea with Queen Elizabeth II was released to kick off the Jubilee Celebrations in 2022, and the association between the two has remained ever since.
Bond didn’t live to see Paddington’s meeting with the Queen – he died on the final day of shooting of the second film in 2017 – though he did see the first film, and even had a cameo in it. But he would have loved the bear’s meeting with royalty. “That was just extraordinary. It was so special and moving, such an honour,” she says.
Jankel used to run the Paddington business for 30 years. She stepped away in 2016, though looks after the rights to the classic books – so wasn’t involved in the creation of The Paddington Bear Experience.
“It’s great to enjoy this after not having had to do any of the hard work,” she laughs, adding. “There’s a wonderful sense of really walking into Number 32, Windsor Gardens.”
And she’s delighted that the love for Paddington remains strong. “My father was a very kind man. That was the reason he bought the bear, he couldn’t leave him sitting all alone. That found its way into the stories and that connects with people. They also like that things go wrong with Paddington but things always turn out alright in the end.”
