Paddington Bear granted UK passport by Home Office
22 October 2024, 08:59
Britain’s favourite bear has officially been issued a UK passport.
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Paddington Bear has been granted a UK passport, according to the co-producer of his latest on-screen outing.
And in a rare show of humour from the Home Office, an official observation about the fictional Peruvian-born character correctly notes that he is, in fact, a bear.
The producers of Paddington in Peru received the replica document after contacting the Home Office.
“We wrote to the Home Office asking if we could get a replica, and they actually issued Paddington with an official passport – there’s only one of these,” Rob Silva told Radio Times.
Brandishing the document, he 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.”
Unfortunately for Ben Whishaw, who voices the iconic bear in his upcoming film, he didn’t get to use the passport to travel to Peru himself as he spent the movie’s entire production locked in a London recording studio.
He never even got to meet his co-stars, he said: “I never met Antonio [Banderas] or Olivia [Colman] for this film, but I hope I will at some point, because I watched their performances and enjoyed them so enormously. On Paddington 2, I never saw Hugh Grant, not once.”
He continued: “I would have loved to have gone to Peru and Colombia, but I didn’t get to go. I was just in a basement in Soho the entire time.”
