Africa-Press – Eswatini. Paddington has been popping up everywhere among the tributes to the Queen, from toys in the carpets of flowers, to films appearing in TV schedules. It all stems from a sketch during the Platinum Jubilee, when the monarch and the bear made an unlikely but heartwarming pair.
It has been “extraordinary” to see how people have turned to the lovable brown bear for comfort as they have mourned the Queen, according to Karen Jankel, daughter of Paddington creator Michael Bond.
“If somebody told me a year ago that the Queen was sadly going to die, and when she did, that Paddington would be a very large part of it, I would be utterly amazed.”
Paddington teddies and marmalade sandwiches have been placed among the tributes – so many, in fact, that the Royal Parks have asked mourners not to leave any more.
Artistic illustrations of Paddington have become tributes too, while the BBC has decided to broadcast the Paddington film on Saturday instead of the Strictly Come Dancing launch programme, with its sequel scheduled to follow coverage of the funeral on Monday.
Paddington was not previously closely associated with the Queen, but that changed three months ago, after Buckingham Palace came up with an idea to film her acting opposite the Peruvian bear to launch her televised Jubilee concert.
“One of the last times most of us saw the Queen close up was when she did that marvellous sketch during the Jubilee celebrations,” Ms Jankel told the BBC’s Colin Paterson.
“That was the final image of the Queen for many people – that’s what they remember, and so they associate her with Paddington.”
That sketch showed the Queen offering her customary good-humoured hospitality to the clumsy bear, and pulling a marmalade sandwich out of her handbag.
It was a reassuring appearance from the smiling monarch despite the fact she could not attend the main live event itself because of her health.
It was written by some of the people who worked on the Paddington films. “We knew Paddington and the Queen stood for, and still do stand for, certain similar values – the idea that, be kind and polite and the world will be right,” co-writer James Lamont recently told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“It just felt very natural that those two could share a space together. They would both welcome each other, because they’re both cut from the same cloth.
“We also thought there was some inherent comedy in the idea of Paddington, who we know is a bit of a klutz and a bit of a bull in a china shop at times – putting him in Buckingham Palace in front of the Queen, where etiquette and behaviour are obviously paramount.”
Frank Cottrell-Boyce, who worked on both the Queen’s appearance with James Bond for the London Olympic Games opening ceremony in 2012 and the Paddington sketch, said the monarch put in “a brilliantly-timed comic performance”.
“What an astute idea it was to have her act with Paddington, because Paddington embodies so many of the values that she stood for,” he told BBC Breakfast.
“Paddington is all about kindness, toleration, being kind to strangers, politeness – these things that are about character. And those are values that she’s embodied throughout her life.
“And they’re not values that are uncontested at the moment, so it was not purely a cute thing to do. It was significant, I think, and that’s why it’s resonated so much.”
The sketch culminated with the pair tapping their teacups in time to the famous rhythm of pop band Queen’s We Will Rock You, as the group opened the concert in front of Buckingham Palace.
‘Absolutely smashed it’
It “wasn’t an easy task” for her to act opposite a character who was not there, only being inserted later using computer-generated animation, Cottrell-Boyce added.
“In those script meetings, I was very adamant that we shouldn’t end with her tapping the cup,” he admitted.
“I thought, ‘she will never pull that off, it’s too much to ask’. And she pulled it off brilliantly. It was amazing. She’s absolutely glowing in that moment, isn’t she?”
Lamont revealed that they gave her certain cues. “You do write reaction lines in scripts. You write things like, ‘Her Majesty looks surprised’, or, ‘Her Majesty smiles warmly’.
“But I don’t think any of us could truly have anticipated the level to which she absolutely smashed it.”
After the Jubilee, artist Eleanor Tomlinson painted an image of the Queen and Paddington walking together hand-in-hand, which quickly went viral on social media.
That picture has now also become a familiar sight among the tributes. “It’s one thing to see something online and being shared and the lovely comments, but to see it in that kind of setting, among a sea of flowers and tributes, is just something else completely,” Tomlinson told BBC Look North.
“I’m not really an emotional person, but I was very teary looking at the photos.”
However, striking such a chord has presented problems. Tomlinson posted a message on Twitter on Monday saying she was “saddened and frankly disgusted” by the “artwork theft of my illustrations that has been occurring since June” by people selling copies without her permission.
Paddington author Bond would have been “overwhelmed” and “humbled” by this unexpected new link between his most famous character and the Queen, his daughter said.
“Paddington was his creation, and to think that now people all around the world are associating [him with] what is a terribly sad occasion. But actually, that introduction of Paddington has lifted everybody’s spirits, and I think that would have pleased him.”
Thank you Ma’am, for everything.
There were some loose links between the Queen and Paddington before the Jubilee.
Bond and the Queen were born in the same year, and were both British institutions who rose to their very different prominent positions in the 1950s – with the Queen crowned three years before Bond first created his character.
The author, who died in 2017, was made an OBE by the Queen in 1997 and a CBE in 2015.
He was also actually at the Queen’s coronation in 1953 – as part of the TV crew. He worked as a BBC cameraman and sound engineer before Paddington was published.
“He said it was a very long day,” his daughter said. “He sat very high up for some reason, so he had quite a good vantage point. It was a pretty special occasion to be involved with.
“It’s as though the two have been interwoven throughout the Queen’s life.”
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