The recent Paddington Bear film series has been a delight to audiences, prompting a renewed interest in the famous bear – and even seeing the late Queen get in on the action.
Filled with charm and humour, the third film in the series Paddington in Peru hits cinemas on January 1.
Most well known as Lord Grantham on Downton Abbey, Hugh Bonneville stars, alongside the loveable Paddington Bear, as Mr Brown.
Speaking with Francesca Rudkin ahead of the film’s release, Bonneville explained Paddington's stint at "marmalade rehab" was behind the seven-year gap between films.
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You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin from News Talks edb Right.
Hugh Bonnyville is most well known as Lord Grantham from Downtown Abbey, but I think one of the most delightful roles he plays is mister Brown alongside the lovable Paddington Bear. And Paddington is back. This time he's heading back to his homeland. The film is called Paddington in Peru.
Paddington. There's a letter for a Peru Dear Paddington or Aunt Lucy. She's gone and we have no idea where she is. She raised me when I was orphan.
There's a cup if you ever get lost, just raw. I know, I know.
It's not as if we can drop everything and fly to Peru.
Earlier this week, I was delighted to catch up with Hugh Bonnyville, albeit in the wee small hours of the morning. I started the interview by asking you how good is it to be back in the Paddington world.
Well, as you can see here, I am speaking to you from darkest Peru. It's lovely to be back with the gang and to tell this new adventure.
The last time I spoke to you.
We spoke about the film to Olivia and I feel like you had been playing a real range of characters over the last.
Few years, and edgy characters are good.
But is it quite lovely just to get back to this charming, wholesome world of Peddington.
Oh well absolutely. This bear is so beloved around the world, not at least in New Zealand, so it's great to bring him back to the screen. Obviously, his reputation precedes him and his egos got bigger, so he comes out of his trailer fewer and fewer times. But when he does, he bounces down and we've had standings, know, we work with standings most of the day, and then suddenly about four o'clock he arrives and says, I'm ready for my close up. And it's always worth it because he's so charming, and in this particular adventure, we go to the heart of the jungle and to the heart of where he came from. So it's not an origin story, but it does make him reflect on where he's from and where he's going.
So is he responsible for the reason why there's been seven years between films, Yes.
Because he had so many other commitments he does a lot of work for charity, and then there was a big stint in Marmalade rehab. But he's now out. He's fine, he's handling it all and he's back on track and he's on the promotional trail.
I imagine it was very difficult because the cast is, it's an incredible cast in these films. Imagine it was quite difficult getting everybody together to do a sequel.
Well, yes it was, and it wasn't. There was a thing called the pandemic which really got in the way initially, and then you know, issues to do with budget and tweak. There's no point making a movie unless the script is absolutely right. And so Dougal who's our director, and Rosie Allison, our producer, and the writing team really worked hard on you know, right up. In fact, even on the set we were tweaking bits and bobs to make the stories rich and as tight and as fun the previous two movies.
This film, of course, the third film, some new cast members and I'll get to them in just a moment that you mentioned doogle there, Google Wilson. This is the first time he has directed a feature film.
I mean, this is quite a large project.
To take on this is not a straightforward feature film.
He's done a very good job.
Well he's done. I think he's done a terrific job, and also must have been nerve wracking for him, you know, as he himself has said that he had large shoes to fill. Paul King did such a mangisterial job on the first two movies and set the tone and the color palette and the look and the feel of the movies. But Google has brought his own, his own taste to this third film, but it's only developed what's already there. So he was very nervous.
You know.
He's come from the world of commercials and short music videos and so on, so to take on a a proper big movie was nerve wracking for him. So in fact, most of the movie was spent reassuring him that he was rather brilliant, which it wasn't a task because he's a lovely guy and has the same wonderful outlook on the world as Baddington does.
And I was thrilled to see that he's brought a lot of creative sort of ingenuity to this film, because that's.
What we expect.
It's such a mix of live action and animation and interesting visuals, and he's really stipped that up, hasn't he?
Oh completely, And he's a great storyboarder. I've never met a director who's so well prepared. Mind you, he did have, you know, several there were not false starts, but there was several times when we thought we might go and then couldn't because of various issues. So he's been more prepared. He's had more time to repare than any other director I've ever met. But he's meticulous in that preparation, but also inventive, and he's dogged at trying to get the you know, the jokes right, the visual jokes as a glory Bious referenced as a Buster Keaton reference for instance, which is anyone who knows those films will really enjoy. And the film is peppered as the other two were, with visual references, but also smart verbal gags and great character development as well, with huge heart at the center of it. And that's hugely down to Google's input.
You're joined by some new cast members, Emily Mortimer s Dickson to Sally Hawkin's role of Missus Brown and she, weirdly, she was such a good fit that it took me a.
Moment to go Hugh's got a new wife.
Absolutely well. We were very sorry that Sally, for her own personal reasons stepped back and she was just taking a break, which we all completely understand. And bizarrely, as Rosie the producer was telling me this, the first image, the first name and face that popped into my head was Emily's and I just blurted out Emily Mortimer. And we were so lucky that when Rosie and the team approached her she said yes, and it all fitted. She does fit in absolutely seamlessly, and we felt like a family from from the outset. So it was a joyous thing to have her on board as well.
And the other person who fits them seamlessly as well and very much got the memo of you know, how you know what to bring to a Peddington film was Olivia Coleman. I mean she hid me and stitches immediately.
Yes, So Olivia plays the reverend mother who runs the home for Retired Bears, where of course Aunt Lucy as we know, lives and it is very much invested with the spirit of Julia Andrews and the sound of music and will burst into song with a guitar whenever she can, and so hence you see roller skating nuns and nuns doing cartwheels and you know, skipping through the hills of the andes of Peru.
She was.
She absolutely embraced the role and was huge funds to have around.
Because it's been a while since the two of your work together.
We did it's a show called twenty twelve, which is all about setting up the twenty twelve Olympics. She played my doggedly loyal secretary, and she was genius in that. It was great to be reunited on this. Yeah.
Antonio Banderas of course joins you as well as a cursed Amazonian river captain.
Was he fun to work with as well?
He's great. I mean he's a you know, maybe a massive, great, big movie star, but he's a proper actor. He comes from theater, so I always called, you know, people like that one of us. He gets it and knows about teamwork and in his case, knows about having to play lots of characters. I think he after a couple of weeks he said, I thought it was going to be fun playing all these different characters, but actually it's a lot of time in makeup because there's a nice nod to kind hearts and coronets, and that he plays various ancestors who revisited him during the course of the story. He's wonderfully, He's very funny and as I said, a complete team player and committed to the team. He led from the front wonderfully.
This is much more of an action film, too, isn't it.
I mean, you know, the Brown family gets out of London and they've got to get their action boots on.
Yes, well, because we go back to visit Aunt Lucy and then in the process discovered that she's gone off on her own adventures, so we need to follow her track her down. That does lead us into the jungles of South America, and you can imagine that we encounter all sorts of adventures there, not least when you've got a bear leading the way who thinks he knows the way, but of course hasn't been there since he was a cub, so relying on him for compass and navigational purposes is probably a bit of a mistake. But we all have to confront things, not least our own fear of spiders, which you do brilliantly.
I have to ask, and I don't want to give away too much of the magic of making a movie, but the integration of the animated Peddington is exceptional. I'm really curious to know when you're in the middle of you know, a Peruvian you know, rainforests and things, and you're it's full on and you're acting, who is on sit as Perrington, Who are you acting to?
Are you being feed the lines and things?
Well, I just will make absolutely clear to you and to your viewers that the bear is real. But as I said, sometimes he has to have a little lied down. If if you ate that many marmalade sandwiches in a day, you'd have to So we do have assistance. We have an actress called Lauren who has been on every movie. She is the same height as Paddington, and she dons his coat and hat and walks through the scenes with us, and so we shoot with her first, and then then we might do another pass without her there, but with our eyes following in the direction where she's been. Sometimes it's a bit more simplistic than that. It's a stick with a bit of sticky tape at three foot six, which is where his eyes are, and so it can be. It's a very bitty and fiddly process, as I say. But then when the star does emerge and steps into graceus with his presence, from the magic happens.
Hugh, I must ask you while we hit you with us. This year we lost day.
Maggie Smith, and I can't on a legend, and I'm just wondering if you could share with me some you know, what you've learned from working with her over the years.
Well, strangely that my most vivid memory of her probably is the is the last scenes we were filming with her back in the at the end of the second Down To and Abby film, and you know, while the cameras were setting up, I was just, you know, sitting next to her, and I just reflected on the fact that this was the last time I was going to see her on screen, and that I'd had the privilege of ten years calling her mum. And I just thought back over the career and many of the performances that I'd seen, some that I hadn't you know, you go right in my memory bank, going back to watching her on screen as Desdemona, to Olivier's Othello, to watching her on stage in the West end, and not to mention her to us winning performances in Plaza Suite and The Prime and Miss Jane Brody and this extraordinary range of this beautiful mercurial woman. And I'd been lucky enough to work closely with her on and off over that decade. So I've got that fond memory to hold on to, and luckily we've got the great legacy of all her screenwork to cling onto. But you know, she was her own toughest critic, and so you all had to raise we all had to raise our game when we were on set with her, because she didn't take any prisoners, least of all herself.
So Peddington and Peru is a wonderful way to start twenty twenty five. What does the rest of the year hold for you? I hear there is talk about a third film from Downton Nebby Yes Dan.
We finished that just a few months ago, and so that's coming out I think in September, certainly in the UK, So I'm not sure when it reaches you, guys, But that was a lovely rounding off of the story, really, so I think those who followed the show since it's beginning fifty two episodes and three films ago. We'll be delighted to see the story coming into land. So that's on the horizon.
Yeah, Fantasa. I can't thank you enough for joining us. It's lovely to talk to you again, and thank you for such just gorgeous, wonderful cinema. Appreciate it.
Thank you so much. Nice to talk to you.
That was Hugh Bonneville. You can see Hugh in the wonderful cast of Paddington and Peru in cinemas from January first.
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen live to News Talks it Be from nine am Sunday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.