Peruvian-born Paddington Bear has been issued an official UK passport by the Home Office.
The beloved bear from the much-loved film franchise has become a symbol of migration in recent times, serving as a reminder that resettling is a story that has been told throughout history both in real life and in fiction.
Ahead of the last Paddington film, co-producer Rob Silva wrote to the Home Office asking if they could get a replica passport to give him official status in his adopted country.
“They actually issued Paddington with an official passport”, Silva told Radio Times, adding: “You wouldn’t think the Home Office would have a sense of humour, but under official observations, they’ve just listed him as Bear.”
Ben Whishaw, who voices the new British subject in the film Paddington in Peru, revealed that the specimen passport was not needed during production – because he spent the whole schedule in a subterranean studio in central London.
Nor did he meet any of his co-stars. “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 told Radio Times.
And he added: “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.”
In the latest film – the third in the franchise – the duffel-coated bear travels to the country of his birth to visit his Aunt Lucy. But he discovers from the guitar-playing nun who runs the home for retired bears that his aunt went missing during a scientific mission.
Olivia Colman plays the nun, while Antonio Banderas plays a swashbuckling sailor who helps them iin their quest to find her.
