Michael Bond, creator of Paddington Bear dies aged 91.

[vandermolen]

Tribute from NY Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/28/books/michael-bond-dead-paddington-bear.html

Apparently people have been placing flowers and jars of marmalade at the statue of Paddington in Paddington Station, London.

Also this:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/28/michael-bond-and-paddington-offered-lessons-in-kindness-for-today

He gave pleasure to millions.

[NikF]

Yeah, I saw that. How sad. But 91 is a right good innings.
Hats (with a marmalade sandwich inside, of course) off to Michael Bond, purveyor of simple childhood pleasures.

[vandermolen]

Yeah, I saw that. How sad. But 91 is a right good innings.
Hats (with a marmalade sandwich inside, of course) off to Michael Bond, purveyor of simple childhood pleasures.

Thanks Nik - yes, a great age. Sir Michael Hordern who played Paddington in the children's TV series said that the three most difficult roles in his distinguished acting career were God, King Lear and Paddington Bear.

[NikF]

Thanks Nik - yes, a great age. Sir Michael Hordern who played Paddington in the children's TV series said that the three most difficult roles in his distinguished acting career were God, King Lear and Paddington Bear.

Yeah, three well written roles with depth and scope to explore. 

The Paddington TV show; between Ivor Wood/FilmFair and Postgate/Smallfilms that was a little golden period of stop motion animation, wasn't it? I believe one of the biggest changes in television *programming in the UK was when that small and innocent five minute visit to the worlds of Paddington or The Clangers or Ivor the Engine was replaced by the banality of Australian soap operas.

Anyway, speaking of Horden, I've probably mentioned it before but his performance in the 1960s TV adaptation of the M. R. James story 'Whistle and I'll Come to You' is something to behold. Jonathan Miller directed it part of the 'Omnibus' arts series. If you haven't seen it you might want to try and check it out.


(*I know part of it was due to the adoption of 'stripped and stranded' programming that required almost all shows to be of a duration that's a multiple of 30 minutes and start/end on the hour or half hour.)

[vandermolen]

Yeah, three well written roles with depth and scope to explore. 

The Paddington TV show; between Ivor Wood/FilmFair and Postgate/Smallfilms that was a little golden period of stop motion animation, wasn't it? I believe one of the biggest changes in television *programming in the UK was when that small and innocent five minute visit to the worlds of Paddington or The Clangers or Ivor the Engine was replaced by the banality of Australian soap operas.

Anyway, speaking of Horden, I've probably mentioned it before but his performance in the 1960s TV adaptation of the M. R. James story 'Whistle and I'll Come to You' is something to behold. Jonathan Miller directed it part of the 'Omnibus' arts series. If you haven't seen it you might want to try and check it out.


(*I know part of it was due to the adoption of 'stripped and stranded' programming that required almost all shows to be of a duration that's a multiple of 30 minutes and start/end on the hour or half hour.)

Will do Nick - thanks for the suggestion.

Statue of Paddington in Lima, Peru:

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DuUUmxsjbZA/Veb-zN-_fJI/AAAAAAAAAmI/Ixx5SruHLU4/s1600/11960143_420446911489670_6631883967628877847_n.jpg