Disclaimer: We received complimentary tickets for the Paddington Lo-Commotion experience at Blenheim Palace to review free of charge, but words and pictures are mine.
This Saturday just gone it happened to be my partner’s birthday and, as any right-thinking person in their mid-40s would clearly choose to, we decided to go to Blenheim Palace to see this summer’s ‘Paddington Lo-Commotion’ Experience. We did have his children to stay for an extra weekend, so perhaps that swung the decision. They didn’t seem overly enthusiastic about it, but as we pointed out, when it’s your birthday, you get to decide what you do for it, and who doesn’t love Paddington?!
The Paddington Lo-Commotion experience
The Paddington Lo-Commotion experience is essentially a bit of immersive theatre; a phrase that usually has me running away at speed, but kids love that stuff. The actors take you around the grounds at Blenheim, stopping at various different locations, where you met different characters and hear another part of the story.
Despite the forecast looking iffy, we were told that Paddington Lo-Commotion would still be going ahead. It’s the British way – if we let a bit of adverse weather affect our plans, we’d never get anything done would we?
With no alternative plans for the day, we drove to Oxford through extremely changeable weather with some very heavy showers along the way. It didn’t look good at all, but when we arrived at Blenheim the ground was surprisingly dry and we thought that maybe we’d get away with it. Yes, the wind was picking up and whipping through the courtyard making the plastic wrap on the scaffolding sound terrifying, but at least it wasn’t raining.
After checking in at the Blenheim Palace Railway Station hut, we donned our snazzy ‘I’m Helping Paddington’ jackets and made our way to the ‘Lost Property tent’ with about 15 others. Here we met our enthusiastic guide, Mrs Bird, and of course Paddington; Paddington in this instance being a large puppet cleverly managed and voiced by three different actors along the way.
Paddington had lost his train driver’s whistle, and it was down to the group to help him to find it.
You walk the route – marked out by empty jars of marmalade – on foot.
The whole walk is around 0.75km; it isn’t a difficult walk, but personally I would advise sturdy footwear as it can be uneven, and if you can leave prams etc behind it might be easier particularly if the ground is muddy.
We were on our third stop at the train depot – where Paddington had his hand stuck inside the train trying to retrieve a spanner – when there was a rumble of thunder (which I thought was a sound effect, but evidently wasn’t) and the heavens opened. It started absolutely bucketing it down; biblical-style rain. One minute the sun was out and coats and jumpers were off and the next there were claps of thunder and flash flooding.
The thunder, and presumably all the trees and the risk assessments that any such event will have to do, meant that we all sheltered in the little train depot until it had safely passed. During this time, the actor voicing Paddington did his absolute best to keep the kids amused – it was like a little impromptu Q&A with Paddington. We thought he did really well to go off-script for so long and the kids all found it wildly entertaining; I’d go as far as saying that was their favourite bit.
Back on the Paddington Trail
When the rain finally stopped, we went outside but we couldn’t finish the trail until the staff had confirmed that the weather was safe. In the meantime, Mrs Bird taught the kids a game to keep them amused.
From there we went on to meet Mr Gruber (who was brilliant; top notch German accent and all) and find some buried treasure, before ending up at the antiques fair, near the Walled Garden. Here, we were given tickets to take the train back to the palace entrance on the Blenheim train.
We dipped into the Paddington shop, gasped at the price of the Paddington merchandise and made a swift exit. We had designs on walking the beautifully landscaped grounds until it rained again, and we decided to call it a day.
Even though the kids (aged 4 and 7) had previously decided that they ‘didn’t like Paddington’ (sacrilege) and didn’t want to go, I’m pleased to report that it sucked them in and they were forced to enjoy it. I won’t lie – if I had known exactly what it the rain going to be like I may have chosen to stay at home and watch a film or something instead, but I’m glad we went. Despite the insane weather, we had a very nice day.
The experience is supposed to last for just under an hour; ours took a bit longer because of the weather!
Tickets for Paddington Lo-Commotion
Paddington Lo-Commotion is running over the summer holidays until Sunday 3rd September. It runs Tuesday to Thursday, 10am – 2:10pm and Friday to Sunday & Bank Holiday Monday, 10am – 3:30pm. Tickets cost between £20 and £25 for anyone aged 3+ depending on whether you attend on or off peak, with discounts for group tickets and concessions.
I do personally feel like this is fairly expensive – Blenheim in general is, to be honest, as is basically everything in life at the moment… But if you have little Paddington fans (I’d suggest aged from 3-8) then it is one to consider for the summer holidays, particularly if you can pack a picnic and explore the grounds afterwards.
Go to https://paddingtontrainadventure.co.uk/ for more information and to book tickets.
