It's time to guess

[girlyswot]

Yup, it's Paddington.  I had several of the books which I enjoyed, but I especially loved the TV incarnation with the sketched backgrounds and the model bear as well as Michael Hordern's wonderful narration. 

Paddington is 50 years old this year and isn't he looking well?  Apparently one of the very first Paddington bears belonged to Jeremy Clarkson.  His mother made them for Christmas presents, but they became so popular that a little later Clarkson's parents set up a factory to produce officially licensed Paddingtons.  You can hear about this and the 50 Paddingtons that were found in British train stations earlier this year with luggage labels saying, 'Please look after this bear' in a Radio 4 celebration.

Happy birthday, Paddington!  Have a marmalade sandwich on me.

Comments

[tdu000.livejournal.com]

Aren't they renaming marmalade "Orange Jam" and making it sweeter? We had a story on our radio about it a couple of weeks ago. Naturally I said, "What about Paddington?" The argument seems to be that marmalade doesn't appeal to a younger market. How silly!

I loved JKR's nod to Paddington with the Instant Darkness Powder coming from Peru. That still makes me laugh (even more than U-no-poo!).

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Who's 'they'? First I've heard of it.

[tdu000.livejournal.com]

One of the manufacturers. I think it's Rose's but it could be Robertson's. It's definitely a brand I've heard of, I just can't remember which one. Maybe it wasn't reported in America. Australians are probably more interested in what happens in the UK than Americans. Plus we can buy a lot of the same foods and brands here.

[alkari.livejournal.com]

I think it was Rose's, because my family loves their lime marmalade, and I remember thinking that "lime jam" just didn't sound the same.