Paddington Goes Home

Although a well-loved character from British children's literature, Paddington Bear is from Peru in South America, and in the third film in the series about him, he returns to his home country to visit his Aunt Lucy. His adoptive family, the Browns, join him on his journey.  This trailer for Paddington in Peru would be great to work on with pupils from A1+.

Paddington was created by British author (and at the time BBC cameraman) Michael Bond, in 1958. He wrote a whole series of books about the bear with a genius for getting into sticky situations: they have sold more than 35 million copies worldwide. Since 2014, Paddington has also been a successful film franchise.

Your pupils may well know Paddington's backstory from the books or films, and it would be some great oral interaction to have them explain the story to you, helping each other out as necessary. If they happen not to know it, or need some reminding, this short clip from the first film gives the essentials. It shows Paddington first meeting the Brown family at the London railway station that they will choose as his name.  Paddington is an orphan from "deepest Peru". He was brought up by his Aunt Lucy but she has now gone into a retirement home and has sent Paddington to Britain. Some key elements are the label saying "Please look after this bear" and Paddington's hat, under which he often keeps marmalade sandwiches, his favourite food.

Off to Peru

At the beginning of the trailer for the new film, Paddington is in his namesake station trying to take photos in a photobooth.  The (typically disastrous) photo session offers opportunities to work on polite expressions in English. The booth's automatic voice says, "Thank you for using Photo Me." Ever polite, Paddington replies, "Thank you for having me." The booth then says, "Please note that headwear is not permitted." (Paddington has removed his hat but the booth is detecting the marmalade sandwich left on his head.) The payoff of the joke comes right at the end of the trailer and introduces another polite expression, when Paddington has to make the same grimace as on his passport photo before the passport control officer says, "Welcome to Peru."

Pupils can try to guess why Paddington is doing photos, and check their hypotheses in the next scene when he receives his passport. Again, pupils can be asked why he might need a passport. The next two lines are easy to pick up since they are almost a repetition: "We're coming to visit you! The Browns are coming to Peru!"

Once they arrive at the retirement home (transported on a boat by Antonio Banderas and welcomed by a nun played by Olivia Colman), Paddington and the Browns discover Aunt Lucy has gone off on a quest. Pupils should be able to pick out a couple of "have to" modals ("Aunt Lucy found me when I was a cub - now I have to find her.... We have to try.") and try to make other sentences using the expression using what they have seen, as well as imagining where Aunt Lucy may have gone and what her quest may be.

Paddington in Peru
On general release 5 February 2025