Let’s look at the Bear facts
We look at how a bear became a TV star as Paddington celebrates his 60th birthday
TELL us about the money, honey! Paddington Bear has been given his own 50p coin design by the Royal Mint to mark his 60th anniversary.
The much-loved character created by Michael Bond was introduced to the nation in 1958 in a book called A Bear Called Paddington and made the move to television in 1976.
British actor Sir Michael Hordern narrated the BBC animated series which followed the fortunes of the talking bear from Peru and his new life in London with the Brown family – who discovered him at Paddington train station wearing a tag saying simply “Please look after this bear”.
Michael Bond, who died last year at the age of 91, also wrote the five minute TV episodes and once said: “The great advantage of having a bear as a central character is that he can combine the innocence of a child with the sophistication of an adult.”
He came up with the idea of the little bear while working as a TV cameraman at the BBC and later explained the birth of his marmalade sandwichloving creation saying: “I bought a small toy bear on Christmas Eve 1956. I saw it left on a shelf in a London store and felt sorry for it.
“I took it home as a present for my wife Brenda and named it Paddington as we were living near Paddington Station at the time.
“I wrote some stories about the bear, more for fun than with the idea of having them published. After 10 days I found that I had a book on my hands.”
Antiques dealer
Mr Gruber was Paddington’s best friend in the TV series and episodes saw them visiting a wax works, an auction and the Tower of London.
The series, produced by FilmFair, saw Paddington as a 3D animated figure with those around him appearing as paper cut-outs.
Michael Bond also created and wrote the BBC children’s TV series The Herbs in the 1960s about Parsley the Lion and his garden friends Dill the dog, Sage the owl, Lady Rosemary and Sir Basil.