Paddington is a British icon. So why are we all not a bit more like Paddington? The marmalade-loving bear from “Darkest Peru” embodies the mantra he learned from his beloved Aunt Lucy: “If you’re kind and polite the world will be right.”
He is warm, loyal, accepting, helpful – but he is also not averse to giving a hard stare to those who have forgotten their manners. This is despite – or because of – Paddington’s roots. He arrives lost and alone, a stranger in a strange land who has to rely on the generosity of others before repaying them tenfold by being such a positive presence in their lives. “Mr and Mrs Brown first met Paddington on a railway platform.” This is the first line of the first book by Michael Bond, published in 1958. Bond was deliberately drawing on the memory of wartime evacuees, with the note around Paddington’s neck reading, “Please look after this bear.” Since then each generation has been introduced to Paddington and taken him to heart. Every souvenir shop has bucketloads of merchandise and his regal status in society was confirmed when he took tea with the Queen to celebrate the late monarch’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022. The strength of his legacy is partly down to two hugely popular big-screen films.
The much-anticipated third instalment is released this week. Expectations are sky-high but so is the necessity of remembering what the bear represents. Giving Paddington a spirit of grace and playful affability is Ben Whishaw. This week, he talks to the Big Issue all about it.
What else is in this week’s Big Issue?
Mourners locked out of loved ones’ funerals by soaring costs and bureaucratic brick walls
Sam was just 11 when his father Daniel died from brain cancer. His mother had already died of cancer years before, and Sam wanted to scatter his father’s ashes on her grave. But Daniel died in poverty, with very few assets or relations. In cases like this – when no one is planning a service, or when family can’t afford the costs – councils have a statutory duty to carry out a funeral. When Matthew, a family friend, tried to arrange a funeral for Daniel on Sam’s behalf, he encountered stiff resistance. The council told Matthew they could cremate Daniel – but they wouldn’t be able to give the ashes back. “I had to tell Sam. I think he was numb,” Matthew told Big Issue. “How much can one little boy take?”
‘Cruel’ visitor bans in temporary accommodation are leaving families isolated
“It was an abnormal, unhealthy way of living, and I wasn’t willing to subject my children to it.” Hayley Blanks remains defi ant about her decision to break the rules at her temporary accommodation, even though it led to the family’s eviction.
She argues that a blanket visitor ban placed on her family – which barred any relatives and friends from visiting her children at the flat in Bexhill-on- Sea – was cruel and would harm their wellbeing. And facing the prospect of up to three years stuck in temporary housing, Hayley decided it was a risk worth taking.
