A HERO STRUGGLING WITH THE BEAR NECESSITIES

One key theme of the film is that Paddington always sees the best in people, while struggling to come to terms with the world — and sometimes how things works in it.

Director Paul King told the Mail: ‘Our idea was to send this naive person with oldfashioned values into the cynical modern world and ask if he could hold onto those values.

‘It really made us think of those Frank Capra films like Mr Smith Goes To Washington and It’s A Wonderful Life where the homely values of goodness and decency prevail. Most films have a hero who conquers his flaws but Paddington isn’t like that. You feel he needs to heal the world instead of the world changing him.’

In the books, he lives in Windsor Gardens, notting Hill — but the nearest address to this, in nearby Maida Vale, is a block of flats. The homes used in the film are in swanky Primrose Hill a few miles away.