McFly's Tom Fletcher explains why Paddington the Musical had to have "the best songs" he had written

This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.

What’s the view from your sofa?

At the moment, there’s a crazy puppy leaping about chewing everything in sight. So every time we sit on the sofa to watch TV, we’re up again to take something off him before he destroys it.

When you finally get the chance to sit down, who controls the remote?

My middle son Buddy, who’s nine years old, dominates the remote – my wife [actor, podcaster and author Giovanna Fletcher] and I don’t really get a say!

What’s Buddy been making you watch?

Buddy likes watching tutorials on how to assemble a scooter, or how to build a fire. He’s like this completely feral wild kid and I literally don’t know where he is half the time – he’s normally up a tree somewhere. We just watched Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters, which my bandmate Dougie [Poynter from McFly] was on. That was really fun. We’re doing a bit of Clarkson’s Farm, too, just trying to fast-forward through inappropriate language! And we always watch the latest Attenborough – anything with animals and nature.

You’ve written the music and lyrics for the new show Paddington the Musical. Was that stressful?

For sure, Paddington is so timeless, it feels like he has been and will be in our lives for ever. I wanted the music to hold its own with contemporary musicals, and I didn’t want it to seem old in three years’ time. Everyone’s been working on it for about five years, and it means so much to all of us. They had to be the best songs I’ve ever written, because Paddington deserves it.

Have you played the songs to your three sons?

My kids have heard the songs so many times; my family’s been helping me record the demos. Every time I need the Brown family to sing, I will ask my wife, my sister and my sons, so they’ve been part of the whole process with me. Dougie and Harry [Judd] came to one of the workshops we did, so they’ve seen an older version of it, and I got to test to see if they’d cry – they did, thankfully!

You and Danny Jones are the first duo coaching team on The Voice UK. What’s that like?

Easy... it’s really fun, you’re just sitting with your mate eating lots of sweets, listening to amazing singers! You know what caught me off guard? The first time we realised we have 22 years’ of experience in this industry and we actually can give people advice, because I’ve always felt a bit icky about giving advice – I feel like I’ve been winging it my whole career. In sharing our experiences on the show, we feel like we have something we can offer people now. It’s been wonderful.

You also find time to write children’s books. How did that come about?

I started writing children’s books before I even had kids. I’ve always loved things that are aimed at kids – animated movies, Disney films, children’s fiction. I’ve always felt that’s where I operate at my best. Obviously, when I had kids it made it easier, because I have my own little research team to test things on.

Your Children in Need book Pudsey and the Thread of Hope has been made into an animation. Pudsey and Paddington are both about kindness — do we need reminding to be kind?

It’s a complicated world, but one thing that isn’t hard is being kind; kindness isn’t complicated. That for me sums up what Paddington is about, and there are similarities for Pudsey. It’s surreal that I’ve worked with two iconic bears this year. Both were very special, emotional projects for me.

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