Paddington Bear

Paddington Bear was, according to Panda, "a fictional bear surpassing stupidity and rapacity; a poor man's Pooh, even, begging for food and shelter like some Peruvian gypsy at the door". Panda was highly offended when the "Katy Manning" Iris compared him to Paddington. (PROSE: Future Legend)

A book entitled A Bear Called Paddington was present in a library that the Twelfth Doctor and Bill Potts broke into. (PROSE: The Shining Man)

Donna Noble claimed to have learned how to stare from Paddington Bear (PROSE: Appendix - The Last Will) and the section of Peru known as Darkest Peru was documented on the BBC series Attenborough in the Amazon. (PROSE: Greyhound)

When Matthew Corbett took Sooty and Sweep of The Sooty Show to the seaside with Iris Wildthyme sometime in the late 20th century, after it began to rain, Matthew said to the audience that if Sooty wasn't orange, he would've thought that Sooty had been replaced by Paddington to give him such a stare. (PROSE: It's Raining Gin ^[+]Loading...{"page":"136","1":"It's Raining Gin (short story)"}) Later that day, after Panda returned to Iris with Soo in Iris's bus, she gave him a "Paddington Bear stare" that made Panda, according to Matthew, blushed. (PROSE: It's Raining Gin ^[+]Loading...{"page":"138","1":"It's Raining Gin (short story)"})

Behind the scenes

Paddington Bear in The Housekeeper.

As with many real world series, Paddington Bear has been treated as both fact and fiction within the DWU, thus creating contradictory accounts. Additionally, in the short story It's Raining Gin (published in the charity anthology The Curse of Fanfic!) Paddington Bear is treated as a real bear who is known to Iris Wildthyme and Panda, somewhat contradicting PROSE: Future Legend.

Paddington also appeared in the comic The Housekeeper, which featured Fenella Wibbsey among numerous "Magrsverse" characters, and in a few illustrations by Paul Magrs released on his Twitter account.

Connections

Cast connections

Bernard Cribbins narrated two Paddington music albums released in 1975.

John Standing and Jon Glover have both voiced the character Mr. Brown, in the 1989 animated TV series, and the 1997 animated series The Adventures of Paddington Bear, respectively. Cyril Shaps and Nigel Lambert also leant their voices to the latter series.

Most recently, the live action Paddington film series featured Hugh Bonneville, Hugh Grant, Michael Gambon, Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi, Matt Lucas, Matt King, Geoffrey Palmer, Joanna Lumley, Ben Miller, Aaron Neil, Tom Davis, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Maggie Steed, and Meera Syal among its cast.

Mark Benton also appeared alongside the film version of Paddington in a Christmas advert created for British retailer Marks & Spencer in 2017.

Ben Whishaw, who voiced Paddington in the film series, was among the actors tipped to play the Thirteenth Doctor, before Jodie Whittaker's casting.

Other connections

The CD cover of "Themes from Children's BBC".

Paddington Bear was represented alongside Doctor Who in the album "Themes from Children's BBC".