Paddington was written and created by Michael Bond. The television series (produced by FilmFair) was based upon the Paddington Books that Michael Bond started writing when he was working as a BBC TV Cameraman. He got the idea of Paddington when he bought a rather lonely Teddy Bear for his wife. The bear had been left sitting on a shelf all alone, in a Selfridges Store. They promptly named it Paddington after the London Station that was nearby to where they lived. The stories of Paddington became so popular that he could afford to give up the Cameraman position and become a full time writer. Later on in his career he wrote and created The Herbs. Each episode of Paddington started with some graffiti on a wall, with the words Paddington on it and a long arrow pointing towards the bear in question. I'm sure nowadays they wouldn't start a show like this, as I'm sure some people would say that it would encourage children to write graffiti. All I can say is, I grew up watching this and I never once wanted to write graffiti on walls. The show had a unique style, as most things were made from paper cut-outs. These were in 2D, but the perspective that they were presented in, gave a 3D effect. One of the only things that wasn't a cut-out was Paddington himself, he was a proper bear. There have been a number of Paddington shows, and even Hanna Barbera created a cartoon version of him. But we class the FilmFair version of Paddington as the definitive version. Here is a bit of trivia, Jeremy Clarkson's mother (the same Jeremy from 'Top Gear') created the first Paddington Bear toys. Story When Mr and Mrs Brown went to a railway station, to wait for their daughter Judy, they came across a brown bear wearing a Duffle Coat and a large hat. This bear was sitting on an old suitcase behind some mailbags and was very polite when they approached him. They found that he'd come from Darkest Peru and had a label round his neck - 'Please Look after this Bear'. So taking pity on him, the Browns did look after him and took him home to live with them. This is when their adventures started, where Paddington looks into a strange new world, from some innocent and childlike eyes.
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