After the death of The Queen, tributes began appearing outside many of her residences. Some of these included marmalade sandwiches and Paddington Bear toys as a nod to her appearance in a sketch with the famous bear.
The sketch was part of her Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June and featured the Queen enjoying afternoon tea with Paddington. This video has inspired a connection between the Queen and Paddington in public consciousness.
The BBC will honour this connection by airing both Paddington Bear films over the bank holiday weekend. The first one will be played on Saturday September 17 at 7pm while the sequel will air on Monday September 19 at 6.50pm, the same day as the Queen's funeral.
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Paddington Bear tweeted "Thank you Ma'am, for everything" following the announcement of the Queen’s death on Thursday, September 8. This was retweeted over 175k times and has over 1million likes with many people replying supportive messages to the fictional bear.
The Queen and Paddington Bear have only met once at the Jubilee tea but mourners brought so many Paddington themed tributes to Green Park that an announcement was made asking for no more. They requested only unwrapped flowers and sandwiches be left as these will biodegrade over time.
On Saturday, September 17, the BBC will air the first Paddington Bear film starting at 7pm. The sequel will then air on the day of the Queen’s funeral, Monday, September 19, at 6:50pm.
Businesses across the country have announced they will be closed for the day of the funeral. Monday has been declared a bank holiday to allow for national mourning but there is no word whether it will be an annual occurrence.
A government statement said: “Monday 19 September, the date of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s State Funeral, will be a national bank holiday. This will allow individuals, businesses and other organisations to pay their respects to Her Majesty and commemorate Her reign, while marking the final day of the period of national mourning."
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