Paddington review: put your mind at rest – no one gets marmalade up the bum

‘Please look after this bear,’ reads the famous label hanging round Paddington’s neck, and this film does that, admirably, handsomely, endearingly, lovingly and not at all sexily. Such a furore, when the film was awarded a PG instead of a U certificate for ‘sexual references’ — oh no! What have they done to the bear? — but it was just the BBFC being somewhat over-enthusiastic, as it would later admit, when it downgraded it to ‘innuendo’. Still, I wanted to put your mind at rest, wanted you to know the bear is safe and this isn’t Paddington: the Sex Pest or anything, even though that’s a film I’d probably quite like to see.

Directed by Paul King, who comes from a television background (Mighty Boosh, Come Fly With Me), this brings Paddington beautifully to life and keeps it faithful to the spirit of the original while skilfully updating it. Paddington doesn’t have much of a back story in the Michael Bond books, but it’s all been cleverly filled in here, with a snappy opening section set in ‘darkest Peru’ and told through sepia newsreels as a dashing British explorer comes across the bears, discovers their flair for languages, introduces them to marmalade, and promises them they will always be welcome in England, if they are of a mind.