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How Michael Bond’s Tales

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BY EMILY RETTER Senior Feature Writer

It must have looked like a madcap scene straight out of Paddington Bear – and one the nation’s favourite duffle-coated Peruvian would have enjoyed immensely.

Hollywood star Hugh Bonneville was down on the carpet with Michael Bond at the Paddington author’s home in Little Venice, London – near Paddington station – making a cardboard castle for guinea pigs with scissors and glue (Paddington would certainly have brought marmalade into the proceedings with only helpful intentions...).

Hugh became a friend after starring as Mr Brown in the fiPddifildhhi first Paddington film and he, his wife and son were over for lunch.

While he was a bear enthusiast to his core, Michael was also a life-long fan of guinea pigs and since the mid-60s he regularly kept two as pets –one of them always called Olga.

Olga was, of course, the inspiration for another of his children’s books, The Tales of Olga da Polga, published in 1971.

By the time of Hugh’s visit, he was on his seventh Olga.

His hope had always been that a TV series based on his Olga books would be made – so much so that in 1989 he wrote a script and spent months filming his pet rodent, along with the family cat, a tortoise and even a hedgehog, to make a pilot episode in his own garden.

Sadly, nothing was ever done with his amusing and painskifB30 taking footage. But some 30 years on, a 13-part liveaction series, Olga da Polga, filmed with real animals, is finally appearing on CBeebies to charm a new generation of children.

“The television episodes are beautiful, I’m so proud and my father would be thrilled,” says Michael’s daughter Karen Jankel, who got the family’s first Olga as a pet for her eighth birthday in 1966.

The character Karen Sawdust, in both the books and TV series, is based on her, while Mr and Mrs Sawdust are based on her father and her mother, Brenda.

“For months on end, he was on his hands and knees making the pilot! He got very stuck into it,” she recalls, remembering how she would find him chasing an aloof cat or coaxing a hungry Olga to communicate with an uninterested tortoise.

“It was very difficult. My father discovered filming animals is not an easy thing,” she goes on. “He always thought it would be lovely but it got put away and nothing was done with it. It was a kind of hobby project.

“The idea pitched for this TV series after he died is so similar, it was such a coincidence. He would have loved it, it’s exactly what he had in mind.”

And what of any similarity to Olga’s celebrity cousin, Paddington – a national treasure, not to mention a favourite of our late Queen?

Karen chuckles. She still finds Paddington’s new tier of stardom, following his appearance in a sketch with Elizabeth II for her Platinum Jubilee, hard to fathom.

“It’s pretty hard to reach Paddington’s fame,” she laughs. “Olga is quite different from Paddington, she’s quite a feisty character and tells tall stories. Paddington is a character we would all love to have in our lives, whereas Olga is a bit more of a madam!

“Paddington is probably the kinder character, but my father enjoyed writing the Olga stories every bit as much.”

Karen recalls how even before his death in 2017, aged 91, Michael would still sit with his two guinea pigs on his lap, feeding them baby sweetcorn or French beans – because each pig preferred a different snack.

I was lucky enough to meet them, and admire Hugh Bonneville’s handiwork, when Iiidhhhf

I i nterv i ewe d t h e auth or at h ome a few months before he died. Roaming free, the guinea pigs had ma a variety of chewed Michael scooped introduced them w ade the dining room – and wine boxes – their home. d them up playfully and with delight.

Movingly, Karen died literally a coup n reveals: “The final Olga ple of days after he did.” ichael had pigs as Pipsquea When surprised her by ta first Olga in a cardb

Md owned his first two pet a boy, calling them ak and Wilfred.

Karen was eight, he aking her to pick up their board box. hutch and a run himself, his pilot. The hutch in the xactly like that my father al Olga,” says Karen, who attention to detail. ased his books on Olga’s like the time she escaped den. too far, luckily. She was She liked her food, so she atch!” says Karen.

He made Olga a which appeared in h new TV series is “ex built for the origina is touched by the a And Michael b a real-life exploits – l her run in the gard “She didn’t get t quite a greedy pig. S was fairly easy to c Then there wa s guinea pig, who wo

“We thought th e then we discovered

Boris, the neighbour’s ould regularly visit. ey would have babies but d he wasn’t a boy after all!” laughs Karen. “Artistic licence went into the stories.”

It was much later, after Karen had grown up and Michael was living with his second wife, Sue, that he tried to make the Olga pilot – with a later Olga as its star.

His whimsical, grainy footage shows the little guinea pig snuffling in his garden, nibbling grass, staring at the blue summer sky and eyeing up her playmates: Karen’s cat, who played her original childhood cat, Noel; Graham the tortoise, who Michael claimed as a pet via a friend who worked at the London Zoo; and Fangio the hedgehog. Fangio stumbled into the thespian life after Karen found him beside the bins outside her house one morning in Pimlico, Central London.

“It was sitting in the bottom of the basement well curled up, a little prickly ball,” recalls Karen. “This hedgehog in the middle of Pimlico had just arrived! A baby hedgehog.

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“So I put him in a box and rang my father and said, ‘I’ve got you a hedgehog’. He was let loose in the garden, they fed him and he chose to stay for several years. He was very amenable to the filming.”

After seeing Paddington reach new heights in the world’s affections in recent years and becoming a key fixture in tributes after the late Queen’s passing – with Paddington toys and marmalade sandwiches left alongside all the floral tributes – Karen is now thrilled to be seeing her father’s TV ambition for Olga realised.

She’s also delighted that it’s so true to the books and that the Sawdust family – with Mr and Mrs Sawdust played by real-life husband and wife Greg Hemphill and Julie Wilson-Nimmo and her own character, Karen, played by Isla Mercer – are so true to her family.

The only difference is the accents, as the animals all have regional ones – and Olga sounds like a proud Lancastrian. “But it only adds to her character!” Karen says.

■ Olga da Polga, CBeebies, 5.35pm Saturdays and Sundays. Also on BBC iPlayer. emily.retter@mirror.co.uk

@emily_retter

11th November 2022: Daily Mirror ­ Article on Julie Wilson Nimmo ­ “Balamory’s Miss Hoolie looks completely different 17 years on as she stars in new show”

Balamory’s Miss Hoolie looks completely different 17 years on as she stars in new show

Julie Wilson Nimmo has made a comeback to acting as she takes on a new role in a CBeebies programme

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Balamory: Opening credits for classic BBC children's show

Balamory ’s Miss Hoolie looks completely different 17 years on as she stars in new show.

Julie Wilson Nimmo has made a return to acting as she takes on a new role in a CBeebies programme.

The actress, who played the iconic character of Miss Hoolie in Balamory, is set to star alongside her husband, Greg Hemphill in the new series.

They feature in Olga Da Polga where the duo will play Mr and Mrs Sawdust.

In promotional pictures for the show, Julie looks completely unrecognisable almost two decades on from Balamory.

She was known for her famous flicked bob but she has now grown her hair into a long hairstyle.

The Miss Hoolie actress looks completely different (

Image:

BBC / CBeebies)

A photo of the cast showed Julie with her red hair tucked behind her ears while wearing a bright green jumper.

She stood by her partner Greg who wore a red and black shirt, and their on-screen daughter Karen Jankel.

The new series is an adaptation of Paddington creator Michael Bond’s children’s books based on a guinea pig protagonist.

Olga the guinea pig comes to life with the help of voice actress Lesley Harcourt.

Greg spoke to The Sunday Post about the couple's first job together.

He said: "After all the years we’ve been together, this is the first time Jules and I have actually had the opportunity to act together as a couple, and it’s been an absolute delight. Mr Sawdust is a very hands-on dad who looks after Karen as Mrs Sawdust is out working.

"With Jules and I both acting, I’ve spent a lot of time making the tea and looking after our boys when she was out working, so it wasn’t a great leap to portray Mr Sawdust. Little Isla who plays Karen was wonderful, and as we all love animals, working with guinea pigs, cats and tortoises was a dream job."

He said he enjoyed the role as it was 'a joy to just be himself' and he got multiple 'compliments telling him how young he looked'.

Greg said he also loved working with children and animals as 'it is very different and very sweet' and the 'animals were incredibly expressive'.

Julie has starred in other shows

The Miss Hoolie actress went on to add: "Everyone knows and loves Paddington, so it was a wonderful compliment to be asked to bring the Olga da Polga books to life."

Balamory first hit our screens back in 2002 and ran up until 2005.

Julie starred in all four seasons of the show.

Following this, she carried on her acting career in shows such as taking on the role of DC Megan Squire in the BBC Scotland comedy show Scot Squad.

Olga Da Polga is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

15th November 2022­ The Sun ­ Article on Julie Wilson Nimmo ­ “WHAT'S THE STORY Balamory’s Miss Hoolie almost unrecognisable as she fronts new CBeebies show 17 years on from TV debut”