The Bookseller.com

4th July 2009

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Radio 4 celebrates Paddington Bear

22.01.08

To celebrate the 50th birthday of Paddington Bear, BBC Radio 4 has produced a half-hour programme on Paddington, presented by children's author Michael Morpurgo. The station placed 50 Paddington Bears in train stations around the UK today (22nd January) to be found by prospective owners, which will be invited onto the Radio 4 programme "Please Look After This Bear", to be broadcast on 1st March.

The one-off programme will talk to the finders about their favourite Paddington memories, to creator Michael Bond on the enduring appeal of the bear, and to Jeremy Clarkson, whose mother Shirley made the first Paddington Bear soft toy and went on to run the only factory in the world licensed to produce them.

HarperCollins Children's Books publishes the Paddington Bear titles, with a 50th anniversary deluxe edition due in October. Shirley Clarkson's Bearly Believable is published by Harriman House.

Childrens Media HarperCollins Paddington Bear