The bear who won over the world

As the 70th anniversary of the world being introduced to Paddington draws closer, there is no sign of the public's ongoing love affair with the impeccably-mannered bear showing any signs of wearing off — quite the opposite.

In an interview earlier this year, StudioCanal CEO Anna Marsh said: "There will be a fourth film, we're thinking about the next movies", and in November, a Paddington stage musical opens in London.

As the Paddington Bear Experience celebrates its first birthday, Brine hinted that, in the future, Paddington fans around the world may not necessarily have to follow in his "pawsteps" by traveling to London because the world of Mr Gruber's shop, Paddington Station, and Windsor Gardens may go on travels of its own.

"We are in active conversations with many different regions because not everyone should have to come to London to experience the beauty and the delight that is the Paddington Bear Experience," he said. "Doing big replicas of sites like this is no easy task. However, watch this space, because certainly we feel like Windsor Gardens may be popping up internationally in the not-too-distant future."

Michael Bond died in 2017, living long enough to play a cameo role in the first movie, and see its overwhelming success, and his family retain control of the rights to the Paddington character and how it is used.

Bond said the inspiration for Paddington, found at a railway station wearing a name tag, was seeing child evacuees during wartime, which explains why acts of kindness and good nature are so deeply rooted in the stories, and why audiences globally find it so easy to connect with the world of Paddington and the atmosphere it creates.

Paddington's best friend, antiques dealer Mr Gruber, through whose shop visitors enter the Paddington Bear Experience, is also a refugee, and since 2017, Paddington has been a partner of the United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF, "to ensure every child grows up healthy, happy, and safe".

"I do think that there's no sadder sight than refugees," Bond told The Guardian newspaper in 2014, and this sympathy and empathy is borne out in Paddington's approach to life, and the message of the stories.

"Paddington's character is, of course, a refugee, and there is a message about being an outsider but being taken in and given courtesy and love and feeling part of something," said Brine. "And I think this is exactly why Paddington will continue to survive.

"As humans, we desire what it is that Paddington represents, and I think in an ever-changing and sometimes quite scary world, the fact that there is this bear who arrived on a boat from Peru and was accepted into a family and is only there to offer kindness and sincerity and a genuine openness to the world and acceptance of everybody — that's something I think that, deep down, we all yearn for, and we don't see in our day-to-day lives."

Contact the writer at julian@mail.chinadailyuk.com.