“l will always be that person who arrived here knowing no one”: Lord Dubs reviews ‘Paddington: The Musical’

Paddington Bear: Played by Arti Shah (on-stage performer) and James Hameed (voice/remote puppeteer) | Image by: Johan Persson

4 min read23 February

In my 50-year political career, I have sat and listened to words that moved me, uplifted me, entertained me and inspired me, but nothing quite like the words spoken in the Savoy Theatre by a three-foot bear wearing a red hat and a blue duffle coat. Even the best barn-storming political speeches are soon forgotten, and, to use an old adage, become fish-and-chip paper the following day. 

But Paddington does something that we politicians dream of being able to do: he reaches into the hearts and minds of those watching on. And he does it day after day to audiences of thousands who, judging by the performance I was lucky enough to watch, file out wiping tears from their eyes, perhaps a little changed by what they’ve just seen.

I don’t recall the books by Michael Bond having made it onto our bookshelves, so I may have been among just a handful in the audience who really didn’t know what to expect of Paddington the Musical. I vaguely knew it would be a heartfelt tale of a lost bear, but what I found was something far more profound, and oddly personal.

We politicians sometimes make the mistake of using five words when one will do, of dressing our arguments in complicated conceits, of enjoying the sound of our own voices a little too much. Paddington, on the other hand, keeps things simple. “Kindness,” as the musical tells us, “isn’t complicated.” At a time when some like to try to blame refugees, which is of course what Paddington is, for every ill imaginable it’s a message we don’t hear often enough.

There is a small part of me that will always be that person who arrived here by train knowing no one

Like Paddington, I arrived as a child at a mainline London station as a refugee with a nametag around my neck, hoping to find a way to fit into my new home and feeling somewhat out of my depth. Paddington’s journey involved crossing continents; in that sense, it mirrors the journey of many of the refugees of today rather than my own. 

But the story is at pains to remind us of the many layers of migration that have enriched our communities, embodied on stage by Mr Gruber, who we learn arrived from Hungary as a six-year-old boy (the same age I was, and one suspects for the same reason), and Tanya, whose Caribbean warmth and welcome stands in stark contrast to the officious authoritarian figure who tries to object to Paddington settling into his new home. To paraphrase this official, who carries a clipboard and blows his whistle: “You let one bear in, and they’ll all want to come.” (Who does that remind you of?)

It is Tanya, and her son Tony, who introduce another theme that runs throughout the show – a love of London borne of its diversity and tolerance. “There are so many different people in London you can always fit in.” As the cast danced on stage, across the backdrop flashed images of London’s famous sites, from Buckingham Palace to St Paul’s Cathedral, including the magnificent towers of Battersea Power Station, where many years ago I was once the MP.

Even after a life spent in the UK, most of it in London, there is a small part of me that will always be that person who arrived here by train knowing no one.

But in the Savoy Theatre, thanks to Paddington, I was reminded that my story is not to so very different from that of thousands who live here, and that’s exactly what makes me a Londoner, and proud.

Lord Dubs is a Labour peer

Paddington: The Musical

Directed by: Luke Sheppard

Original music and lyrics by: Tom Fletcher

Venue: Savoy Theatre – until February 2027