Paddington bear was created in 1958 and has been featured in two feature length films since then. I’m about to try and explain the biggest mistakes made in Paddington and it all comes down to a humble toothbrush. This was the initial mistake that sparked my hunt for other possible inaccuracies in the film and its mysterious timeline.
Uniforms
In the jail we see Paddington ‘live’ in they all wear uniforms but according to many websites prison uniforms aren’t actually a thing in the UK. It all started when in 1971 women were allowed to wear their own clothes in prisons due to the fact that studies had shown they behaved better in it. This was later put into action in male prisons. According to many sources, in UK prisons inmates only wear the uniform for at least the first month of their time and well behaved prisoners do eventually get clothing rights. BUT this rule was applied quite recently and in my research I couldn’t find the answer as to when this rule was put in place so since women were allowed it in 1971 I am going to guess it was roughly around the 2000’s that this rule was forced through which I know isn’t a great guess but it’s all I’ve got. So basically the movie has to be before the 2000’s as in the prison the inmates are actually really well behaved and so should be seen wearing their own clothing.
Telephone boxes
So, what does this mean? It’s quite apparent in Paddington that he doesn’t live in 2017 but instead earlier due to the telephone boxes, clothing, trains and newspaper stands. So with this in mind we can’t really do much else with the prison uniform theory until we know when the movie is set. With the use of telephone boxes we know the movie is set after 1924 as this was when telephone boxes came out. But from the movie the telephone box Paddington uses looks more like a K6 phone box which came out in 1935. But we can’t do much with this information as even nowadays phone boxes still exist in London although most are just for tourist purposes only.
Toothbrushes
What is the toothbrush thing all about? Well, in a funny scene Paddington uses an electric toothbrush in all kinds of mischievous ways. But if you look close enough you can see the exact type of toothbrush he is using, an Oral B – Vitality Floss Action. This particular toothbrush was made in 2016!
So basically whilst ruining this wonderful film we have discovered that it doesn’t make sense at all. The movie has to be after 1935 because of the telephone boxes but before the 2000’s for the uniform problem. So let’s say that the uniform rule didn’t come out until 2016 and Paddington somehow manages to find a traditional phone box in working order in 2016 there is still one issue, let me explain…
On the 13th of July 2010 the telegraph newspaper published an article about how phone box prices had jumped from 40p to 60p. No big deal right? Well in the movie Paddington uses a 50p coin to pay for the call but if he did this in 2016 he would be 10p short therefore telling us that the film did indeed get it wrong. Is he a time traveller? Perhaps…
By LOUISE CADE
