Danni Scott
Published November 28, 2025 12:01am
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Paddington Bear could be this year’s Christmas number one (Picture: Isha Shah/PA Wire)
It’s that time of year already, the countdown to Christmas has begun, with an early favourite for number one emerging.
Last Christmas saw Wham take the win despite hot competition from Mariah Carey and Tom Grennan, who even got a pre-emptive celebratory tattoo.
This year, a new song from McFly star Tom Fletcher, written for Paddington The Musical, is the bookies’ favourite.
One Of Us, which is also sung by Tom, 40, dropped last week with a music video featuring the beloved bear at Paddington Station.
‘A Christmas number one race isn’t complete without the arrival on the starting blocks of a bona fide legend,’ said Official Charts Company chief executive Martin Talbot.
‘The vision of Paddington taking on this year’s diverse gaggle of new festive chart contenders, alongside seasonal classics from The Pogues, Mariah (Carey) and Wham!, will be something to savour.’
Tom Fletcher wrote the songs for the new musical (Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
The musical is currently previewing at the Savoy Theatre in London’s West End, with Amy Ellen Richardson starring as Mrs Brown, who sings the song.
Michael Bond’s bear is brought to life through an on-stage performer (Arti Shah) and an off-stage remote puppeteer (James Hameed).
Tom, who has been touring with McFly and rival band Busted this year, wrote the music for the stage show, with the album set to be released in March 2026.
Speaking to Radio Times, the Star Girl hitmaker shared: ‘Dougie [Poynter] and Harry [Judd] came to one of the workshops early on, they’ve heard all the songs because they wanted to test to see if they’d cry – they did.
‘Honestly, McFly have been so supportive of this, as we all are with our separate projects. But I think they know how special this one is and they’re really excited to come along with their kids.’
Paddington was greeted by the Royals after opening on the West End (Picture: Jonathan Buckmaster/Daily Express/PA Wire)
The bear is operated by an actor inside and a remote puppeteer (Picture: Jonathan Buckmaster-WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Special guests, the Prince and Princess of Wales, shook hands with Paddington Bear after the Royal Variety Performance on Wednesday night, and also met the McFly star.
Prince William told Tom he thought the performance of the new musical was ‘fantastic’, before pointing to the marmalade sandwich in the bear’s paw, and saying: ‘Your sandwich looks very nice.’
Paddington has had a connection with the royal family since he appeared in a sketch with the late Queen Elizabeth II to mark her platinum jubilee in 2022, which saw her reveal she kept marmalade sandwiches in her handbag.
However, Paddington’s Christmas number one isn’t certain with some serious competition from the likes of Kylie Minogue, Ed Sheeran and Sabrina Carpenter.
Even Denise Welch has released a festive track, Slayyy Bells, in collaboration with Celebrations, in hopes of landing the coveted slot.
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Previous Page Next PageThe number one race has long been dominated by LadBaby’s charity singles, which took over the assumed win from X Factor.
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However, with both out of the way, there’s renewed interest in the festive chart competition.
Children’s characters who have previously reached the festive summit of the UK singles chart include Mr Blobby, who topped the table in 1993, and Bob The Builder, who reached the peak in 2000 with Can We Fix It?.
Paddington, first published in 1958, has seen a number of adaptations over the years, including a BBC TV version in 1976 voiced by the late Sir Michael Hordern.
More recently, there were movies released in 2014, 2017 and 2024 – which all performed well at the box office.
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