It’s the greatest privilege to be asked to do this. But also, woe betide anyone who gets it wrong…”
Jessica Swale laughs nervously as she says this. Tom Fletcher is smiling – or is it grimacing? Both creatives boast stellar credentials: Swale is an Olivier Award-winning playwright, filmmaker and director; Fletcher, the frontman of Noughties pop-rock band McFly, a coach on The Voice and a bestselling children’s author. Still, the pair look suitably daunted when contemplating the pressure they’re under to deliver with their latest project: Paddington the Musical, arriving in the West End next month.
It is, undeniably, a tall order. With his signature red hat, royal blue duffle coat and obsession with all things marmalade, the beloved bear is more than the sum of his adorable parts – he’s officially achieved national treasure status, a British icon on a par with David Attenborough and Big Ben. In the past decade, the cub has transcended his roots as the humble creation of children’s author Michael Bond thanks to three eponymous films, which have introduced the Peruvian expat’s unique brand of chaotic charm and unerring kindness to a whole new audience. An association with the late Queen Elizabeth II, both during her Jubilee celebrations and then at her passing, further catapulted Paddington into the stratosphere.
“He represents so many more things than any other fictional character I can think of,” says Swale, who has inked the script for the new musical. “We both felt like this was the most exciting thing – and also a mega responsibility.”
Five years after Fletcher got the call asking if he’d be interested in writing the production’s music and lyrics, he still looks stunned. “I didn’t know I was even being considered for anything like this,” he says. “I immediately said, ‘Yes, absolutely’. Even while I was on the phone, I started writing a song in my head!”
A song that now opens Act Two. So far, only one of the 18 original tracks has been released. With its waves of crashing emotion and characteristic key change, “The Explorer and the Bear” feels like a classic musical theatre piece, but the soundtrack is more eclectic than you’d think, says Fletcher, reflecting London’s diversity. The melodies and lyrics for Hungarian immigrant Mr Gruber, for example, are influenced by the character’s distinct cultural heritage.
While it was perhaps inevitable that one of the UK’s most famous exports would get the musical treatment – following in the footsteps of other family favourites such as Matilda – Swale and Fletcher’s particular involvement feels far from preordained. After all, neither has done a musical before.
They’re not total newbs, of course. Known for her big-hearted, big cast shows with lots of comedy, Swale has written plays with music for years, such as her Olivier Award-winning Nell Gwynn. And this might be Fletcher’s first composition for a full-on musical, but it’s certainly not his first rodeo. Of his 30 chart-topping children’s books, The Christmasaurus, The Creakers and Space Band have all been published alongside companion soundtrack albums by Fletcher, while his popular picture book series Who’s in Your Book? and The Dinosaur that Pooped (the latter co-created with bandmate Dougie Poynter) have been adapted into touring stage productions featuring his music.
And there’s a kind of genius to hiring people who aren’t weighed down by preconceptions of what a musical should be. “It’s meant that we’ve been able to be a bit more chaotic and Paddington-ish about it – turning up with a suitcase full of ideas and our own different experiences, and then smashing them together in a way that maybe you wouldn’t do if you’d written loads of musicals before,” says Swale. “Being a little bit naive about the process means you follow your instincts more,” agrees Fletcher.
The purveyor of pop songs can trace his love of performance firmly back to theatrical roots. “For a lot of people, it will probably seem a bit of an odd choice that the guy from McFly is being trusted with this musical,” he acknowledges, “but musical theatre has been my whole life.” Since the age of nine, he attended theatre school and “never, ever” imagined winding up in a band. “I always thought I would end up in musicals, or doing something with musical theatre. It feels like coming back home in a weird way.”
Swale and Fletcher joined powerhouse theatre director Luke Sheppard, whose credits include the revamped Starlight Express, In the Heights and & Juliet, and together the trio were given a surprising amount of creative freedom. “There was a huge amount of trust in us three,” says Fletcher. “And being left alone to tell a story that we wanted to come up with was amazing.” It wasn’t just show producers Sonia Friedman and Eliza Lumley who gave them free rein, but StudioCanal, which produced the films, and Michael Bond’s estate – a miraculous thing indeed, with a legacy as protected as Paddington’s.
The upshot is that, although the musical is inspired by the 2014 film, what audiences will see on stage is something completely new. It may loosely follow the narrative of the first Paddington movie – a Peruvian cub arrives in London, finds sanctuary with the Brown family and gets into all sorts of accidental mayhem before a run-in with a vengeful villain – but there’s plenty of fresh material.
Some characters are entirely new, including Grant (Tarinn Callender) and Lady Sloane (Amy Booth-Steel), while others are hugely beefed up from having relatively small roles in the film, such as Mr Curry (Tom Edden). And even those we’re intimately acquainted with won’t be altogether familiar; the musical’s Henry Brown is not quite the same as Hugh Bonneville’s iteration. “That’s one of the fun challenges,” says Swale. “Those characters are so well known – you’ve got to be a bit brave to allow space to make them someone slightly new.”
Being granted that freedom was essential, Swale divulges. After all, we don’t necessarily need another Paddington: “There are the very best films that have ever been made. There are beautiful books. If we were going to use a musical just to rehash something that’s already been done, I don’t think any of us would have been interested – and it wouldn’t be good.”
Instead, the team asked what theatre would bring to the story. The answer? The magic of the audience being in one room together, sharing a vivid, highly theatrical, one-time experience. “We’ve thrown everything that we’ve got at making sure that this is faithful to Paddington in terms of the elements that people love, but also brings a lot of new material to the party,” adds Swale.
These grand sentiments aside, the creative team are remarkably cagey about certain aspects of the show. Namely, one crucial cast member. While most of the actors have been announced, including the legendary Bonnie Langford as Mrs Bird, one character is yet to be unveiled: Paddington Bear himself. He’s shrouded in mystery, with the only hint at his potential mechanics being the fact that there is a (currently anonymous) “bear designer” and “bear creative team” mentioned on the cast list.
Fletcher remains predictably tight-lipped but assures me that audience members are in for a real treat. “The most magical thing I’ve ever experienced in any show is seeing Paddington when he walks out on stage,” he says. “People aren’t ready for it – even just talking about it makes me emotional…” Swale, meanwhile, was “the most starstruck I’ve ever been in my entire life” when she met the bear for the first time.
Their emotional reactions are telling; Paddington has always represented more than just a cute bear. He is, rather, the quintessential outsider seeking friendship; a migrant, alone and far from home, who comes to England on a boat in the hope that British people will look after him. Back when Bond was writing his tale in 1958, Paddington symbolised the children who had been sent away as evacuees during the Second World War. All these years later, its message remains just as poignant at a time when conflict and climate disaster continue to displace millions.
It was important to Swale that the musical tackle those challenging themes “without taking a political sledgehammer” to them. They wanted to allow the audience to make their own connections. “The idea of bringing someone into your home who doesn’t have a home is a very loaded question for a lot of people now,” she says. “But the central theme of the show is that, despite the fact that politics can be complicated, kindness is never complicated.” Fletcher nods in agreement. “The message evolved into kindness,” he says. “That is at the core of all the Paddington stories. It’s been amazing that our journey as writers led us to discover that.”
Most stories follow a flawed protagonist on a journey that fundamentally changes them. What’s special about Paddington is that he never changes – everyone else does instead, becoming better versions of themselves purely through encountering him. Including, as it turns out, Swale and Fletcher. “That’s been our journey as well,” she says, “And it’s been reflected by the nature of our working relationships – these are big subjects to tackle, but we always had to remember to be really kind to each other.”
Audience members might just find the magic works on them, too, predicts Fletcher. “It sounds so cheesy, but when the show finishes, you’re left with this warmth,” he says. “You really do see the world through marmalade-tinted goggles.”
Previews for Paddington the Musical start from 1 November at London’s Savoy Theatre
-(1).jpg?width=1200&height=800&crop=1200:800 "Daytime Emmys 2025 full winners list: General Hospital sweeps with seven awards and Drew Barrymore scores first win – UK Times")