Queen Elizabeth II to appear in Paddington 3
The late Queen Elizabeth II will appear in the new Paddington in Peru film, it has been revealed.
Her small cameo appearance, which will be a photo of her having afternoon tea with the beloved animated bear, was approved by Buckingham Palace.
Ron Halpern, the head of global productions at StudioCanal, the film’s distributor, said the decision to include Elizabeth II came “with the consent and agreement of the royal household”.
Rosie Alison, the film’s co-producer, told Variety magazine: “[The royal family] were actually very happy for it to happen.
“But we don’t like to make a big deal of it, because Paddington’s obviously a very modest fellow.”
The late monarch’s feature in the third Paddington film, released Nov 8, is likely to be an emotional one for audiences after the pair famously appeared in a comical sketch together as part of celebrations for her Platinum Jubilee.
The sketch, released just a few months before her death in September 2022, saw the late Queen delighting an audience of millions by hosting the television favourite for afternoon tea at Windsor Castle in a top-secret sequence.
It showed the monarch inviting Paddington Bear for a “warm and hilarious” cream tea, which goes wrong almost immediately, with the clumsy bear spraying cream from a chocolate eclair over a palace footman.
Paddington, the creation by author Michael Bond and known to a generation of readers and film fans, then shows Her Majesty what he hides underneath his hat – his beloved marmalade sandwiches. The late Queen then confides: “So do I,” and prising open her handbag, tells him: “I keep mine in here.”
The sketch touched the hearts of so many people that after her death a few months later, the thousands of tributes left outside royal residences included teddy bears and jars of marmalade.
More than 1,000 of the Paddington Bear soft toys were later donated to charity after the Palace released a picture of Queen Camilla surrounded by some of the bears at Clarence House.
The Peruvian-born bear, who congratulated the late Queen on her remarkable reign during the sketch, will be seen heading back to his homeland in the latest instalment.
For his travels, he was granted an “official” British passport by the Home Office, which sees the bear squished against the lens with his tongue hanging out.
Rob Silva, who co-produced the film with Alison, said they wrote to the government department asking in the hopes of getting a replica passport, but they were shocked when an official one was granted.
Silva said: “You wouldn’t think the Home Office would have a sense of humour, but under official observations, they’ve just listed him as Bear.”
The mishap-prone bear, now with the royal seal of approval and a physical passport, has reached the heights of “national treasure” status and has been the inspiration behind the most successful independent family franchise of all time.
Paddington merchandise makes as much as £5 million a year, according to The Guardian, and the box office figure for the feature films is well into the hundreds of millions.
Dougal Wilson, the director, noted that the success of the previous feature films, including Paddington 2 in 2017, served as a pressure to make sure the animated bear’s legacy was preserved.
He told Variety: “I am under no illusions that ‘Paddington 2’ is in any way an easy act to follow. It’s actually one of the hardest acts to follow there is.”
The director said that he “felt very flattered,” to be asked to helm the film, “but that soon gave way to terror and pathological trepidation”.
“It’s amazing how it’s become so iconic and so part of the national consciousness,” he added.
