The story is based on the first Paddington Bear film where Colin Firth was meant to voice the bear but after the producers decided his voice was too mature for the little bear, Ben Whishaw was chosen.  The film brought in the villainous Milicent Clyde played by Nicole Kidman.  Here she is Victoria Hamilton-Barritt and her ambition is to capture Paddington for taxidermy.  The stage show has another added villainess, Lady Sloane (Amy Booth-Steel) colonial dressed person with pith helmet  and a divided skirt in charge of the Geographers’ Guild.  Paddington is trying to find the explorer who visited them in Peru. He doesn’t know the explorer’s name but he has his red hat which has the Geographer’s Guild written on it.

Mr Curry (Tom Edden) is the nearest the books get to a villain, not the nosey, difficult neighbour  but here “a taxi driver not a taxidermist”.  The taxi onstage is a highlight of the show.  Goodness knows how they managed to get a taxi onstage in the depths of the Savoy Theatre.  The main friend of Paddington is Mr Gruber (Teddy Kempner) the proprietor of the antique shop in the Portobello Road whom Paddington visits on his own.