I credit/blame Paddington Bear for getting Mandi and me together all those years ago, although I can’t remember the exact circumstances or indeed if this story is even true. We have watched the original television series together on many occasions and even now with its stop motion animation and painted background it is a work of art and every bit as funny, funnier in many cases, than any number of sitcoms. The cartoon series can fuck off of course.

Ever since I found out that there was a proposed film I have been worried about what was going to happen to my beloved Paddington. My biggest fear is that it was going to be made in America and Americanised in the way that Thomas the Tank Engine became Thomas and the Magic Railroad and he’d be eating pizza instead of marmalade sandwiches and wearing a baseball cap and everybody would be appalled. I was also worried (I’ve hardly slept for the last year worrying about this Paddington business) about the bear itself. Paddington Bear looked like a teddy bear in the original TV series, (the illustrations in the book were also very cuddly) which worked for the gentle nature of the stories. This new imagining of Paddington made him look too much like, well, a bear. Fictional bears have one thing in common; they don’t really look like proper bears, look at Yogi, Fozzie, Sooty and however many other bears that I can’t think about at the moment. To be perfectly honest, I wanted to see this film as much as I wanted to eat my own feet.

To add to my reluctance to watch this film there were other obstacles in the way, first of all it would mean having to go to the cinema which is something I hate because there are other people there and in the case of what is essentially a film for small children, it meant that there would be small children there. Other people’s small children are the worst people in the world when you are in a space where you are supposed to be quiet, although this afternoon’s crowd was a reasonably well behaved bunch, there was a low rumble of talking going on but luckily the film was loud enough to be able to zone them out. When I went to see Muppets Most Wanted I got quite annoyed at the behaviour of the audience and got two free tickets as an apology when I complained (which we didn’t use today as I received a gift box of Cineworld tickets for Christmas), so I anticipated at least one occasion of me shouting at someone smaller than me to shut up.

The film felt the need to start with a back story about Paddington’s upbringing in Darkest Peru, which made sense later in the film but I won’t spoil it. Even though it is set in the modern day it is true to the original books and also to the comedy of the TV series. Hugh Bonneville is perfectly cast as Mr. Brown, head of the family that take in the furry refugee and something of a stuffed shirt of a dad to his long suffering family. With Julie Walters, who can do no wrong, plays the batty old lady housekeeper Mrs. Bird and there is a scene stealer of a cameo from Matt Lucas as a London taxi driver. The family (obviously) eventually warm to Paddington and allow him to stay and become one of the family, leading to a transformation in Mr. Brown’s outlook on life which makes the household happier and more affectionate – very much in the style of that other Christmas holiday favourite Mary Poppins (New Year’s Day, BBC1).

Michael Bond, Paddington’s creator, appears at the beginning of the film raising a glass to his character and rightly so. I had tears running down my cheeks as the final line of the film was spoken by the bear himself, they were tears of emotion having seen such a brilliantly made film combined with relief that the film makers had taken heed of the instruction written around Paddington’s neck, and looked after this bear very well indeed.

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