Queen and Paddington Bear share marmalade sandwiches at star-studded reception
Camilla thanked the bear for attending the event, celebrating the final of the BBC 500 Words, a children’s story writing competition.
The Queen asked Paddington Bear to share his marmalade sandwiches with her when she met him at a star-studded reception for the final of a national writing competition.
The BBC 500 Words competition, which received more than 46,000 entries this year, encourages children of all abilities from across the UK to write.
Camilla presented the medals and the winners will be announced during a special episode of the BBC’s The One Show on March 6.
After the ceremony at Windsor Castle, the Queen met the marmalade-loving bear who has been brought to life for Paddington The Musical on the West End.
She shook hands with the 4ft creature, who was dressed in his signature blue duffle coat and red hat, and thanked him for coming to the event.
“Hello Paddington – how very nice to meet you, thank you very much for coming,” Camilla told the bear.
“You’re very kind, you are going to give all your marmalade sandwiches to all these children.
“Perhaps I can have one too?”
The bear gave the Queen an enthusiastic thumbs up to this request, and later guests were offered the sandwiches on plates beneath red hats.
The late Queen Elizabeth II famously appeared in a comedy sketch with a digitally animated Paddington Bear to mark her Platinum Jubilee, in which she revealed that she kept marmalade sandwiches – Paddington’s favourite treat – in her handbag.
When she died in 2022, mourners left Paddington cuddly toys and marmalade sandwiches outside Buckingham Palace in tribute.
Paddington Bear wowed the audience at the final ceremony when he took to the stage to sing The Explorer And The Bear from the musical. West End star Marisha Wallace followed with a powerful performance of A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman.
Other stars at the event on Wednesday included celebrity readers actress Joanna Page, Peep Show actor Paterson Joseph, rapper Big Zuu, TV presenters Bradley and Barney Walsh and Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker.
DJ Sara Cox, who will host a BBC 500 Words special on her Radio 2 Book Club next week, also attended.
Joseph thanked Camilla for “all you are doing for literacy”, and added: “There’s been a big drop since Covid”.
The Queen asked Big Zuu if he was still cooking, and the rapper replied: “I will cook for you soon, one day.”
Bradley Walsh told Camilla her work with the 500 Words competition, which she has supported for more than 10 years, is “a wonderful thing”, while his son Barney said: “The creativity of the children is unbelievable”.
The Queen also met judges of the competition, including Sir Lenny Henry, Noughts And Crosses writer Malorie Blackman and actress Rose Ayling-Ellis, whom she had previously sat down with at Buckingham Palace to discuss the shortlisted stories.
Since the competition was launched in 2011, by Chris Evans on the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show, it has received more than one million stories from children throughout the UK.
The ceremony celebrated the achievements of six winners from two age categories, five to seven and eight to 11, with recognition given to gold, silver, and bronze recipients in each group.
Sir Lenny told reporters he had been talking to the children who had made it to the final of the competition.
“They’ve all said ‘I’m writing a sequel, I’ve got a follow-up, it’s going to be amazing’,” Sir Lenny said.
He joked: “Some of them have agents, there’s a limo outside for one of them already, I mean they’re really ahead of the game these kids, they’re amazing.”
“I was so humbled when I sat down with all the judges, it’s an amazing experience and it inspires me to put my back into my writing,” the actor-turned-writer said.
“These kids have got me beat.”
Asked about concerns over the decline in the number of children reading for pleasure, Sir Lenny said: “It doesn’t feel like that to me, it feels like these kids are smart and they’ve got big ideas and they want to write.”
Author Blackman said she hopes the competition will encourage children to read more.
Of the Queen, she said: “Her Majesty is such a champion of literacy and particularly children’s literacy and I think she realises how important it is to be read to and have stories, to share stories as a way of connecting and communicating with other people.
“She has always been a champion of that and she does an awful lot behind the scenes that people might not see, so it is a cause very dear to her heart.”
