ANSWERS

1) B. Selfridges

MICHAEL Bond was in oxford Street, London, on Christmas Eve 1956 looking for a gift for his wife, Brenda. He sought shelter from the snow in Selfridges: ‘on a shelf there was this one bear and I felt sorry for him. Had there been two bears, I might have given them a passing glance, but I could hardly ignore one bear all by itself, with Christmas coming on.’

2) D. Darkest Africa

Bond had written that Paddington hailed from ‘darkest Africa’, but after submitting the first draft he received a letter from his agent saying ‘he liked the book, but PS there aren’t any bears in Africa’. So Bond changed his birthplace to ‘darkest Peru’.

3) False

Bond refused to have his bear’s face printed on toilet paper or allow the manufacture of a furry bin with Paddington’s head as the lid. He said: ‘I’d go by what Paddington would have thought.’

4) A. Wellington boots

SHIrLEY CLArKSon hand-made a Paddington bear toy for her son Jeremy and daughter Joanna. She started manufacturing hundreds, while her husband sold them — until a legal letter arrived warning them of breach of copyright. They came to an agreement with Bond and started producing thousands. Clarkson put her bears in dunlop wellies to stop them falling over.

5) B. Passed through the Channel Tunnel

EnGLISH Channel Tunnel excavators chose a Paddington toy to be the first item passed through to their French counterparts in 1994.

6) A. Hugh Grant

GrAnT plays the villain Phoenix Buchanan in the new film.