Legendary Paddington Bear Receives British Passport and Official Name

The hero of books and films Paddington Bear - officially known as Paddington Brown - has received a British passport, The Guardian reports.

The idea of creating a document for the fictional character came from Rob Silva, co-producer of the latest film about the bear, who is also a British citizen. The man applied to the Home Office of the United Kingdom with a request to issue a replica of a passport of a citizen of the country. Instead, the department printed a real document for Paddington Bear.

‘We wrote to the Home Office asking if we could get a replica, and they actually issued Paddington with an official passport - there's only one of them,’ Rob Silva told the Radio Times.

According to the film's producer, this shows that the ministry's employees ‘have a sense of humour’.

Paddington Bear is one of the British people's favourite characters. In 2014, a film called The Adventures of Paddington was made based on the books about him.

The sequel was not long in coming - three years later, The Adventures of Paddington 2 was released.

The plot of the third film, which will be released soon, tells the story of the funny bear's return to his homeland - Peru. There, Paddington plans to visit his Aunt Lucy, but finds himself in an exciting adventure.

In the first two films, Paddington Bear, now officially a Briton, spoke in the voice of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.