Well, I’ve just been to see the new Paddington film – the one Colin Firth bowed out of on account of not feeling up to being the voice of the most famous bear in literature, not including Winnie the Pooh. And yep, there were marmalade sandwiches at the launch.
Two things.
One, it’s nothing like the book, apart from a couple of episodes. In the original, Mr Brown spots Paddington among the bicycles and both he and Mrs B are willing to take him on. In this version, Mr Brown, as played by Hugh Bonneville, is an ol’ curmudgeon, a risk assessor who regards bears as trouble and this one in particular as a threat to the children’s health and safety. There’s an odd prequel to the story, which gives us an account of how Paddington came to speak English (Aunt Lucy learned it from a visiting English explorer who tells them that they’d always be welcome in London) and like marmalade (the explorer again).
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