Meet our Celebrity Teds

If you go down to Be My Bear today, you’re sure of a big celebrity surprise thanks to our A-lister furry friends who feature in our Hall of Fame! Our bears have shown they have got what it takes when it comes to the acting profession – and one thing’s sure they are certainly not type cast!!

Our teddy bears’ first taste of stardom came in 2009 when they were summonsed by Sir Alan Sugar to appear in the business reality contest The Apprentice. The Apprentice candidates were tasked with selecting two products to sell at Britain’s biggest baby show in London. So, our bears duly took the fast train down to the smoke and pitched to the candidates along with rivals - rocking horses, toddler helmets and birthing pools.

They also came face to face with Lord Sugar’s right-hand man Nick Hewer who was then renowned for revealing exactly what he thought of the contestants on the show. He scared the living daylights out of our bears examining them closely looking for potential issues, but they held up well and he listed them as a firm favourite. Unfortunately, despite a successful pitch to the two teams of wannabes Ignite and Empire, neither one chose them although the teds did go on to appear in the trailers and credits. It was a tantalisingly close encounter with the world of television and they were hooked – determined to get close up and personal on screen next time an invitation came around.

It duly did a few years later when in 2014 some of the bears were approached to appear in a popular talent show and proved they really did have the X-factor. Be My Bear supplied the producers of ITV's Xtra Factor with bespoke bears as a gift to welcome the show’s finalists to the judges’ houses. The original twelve finalists were presented with their cuddly co-stars complete with messages recorded by the judges and T-shirts bearing their names, and the final four wild card contestants received theirs after the show on the final Saturday. All 16 bears were installed in the X-factor house and featured in camera shots during the following few weeks of filming.

The bears’ stars really were in the ascendancy in September of that year as they also featured in Hollyoaks, winner of Soap of the Year 2014, as part of an on-going storyline. Producers of the prime time top Channel 4 show purchased bears for a plot involving a dodgy trader and teddies incorporating spy cameras. The bears featured prominently over the next few weeks as the drama developed and embroiled several characters in shady dealings and naughty moments.

Another big moment came in 2020 when the teds and many of their fellow creatures were talent spotted for the popular cult psycho drama Killing Eve. Be My Bear supplied hundreds of bears, animals and outfits to Sid Gentle Films Ltd, the producers of the show during the filming of scenes in London. Bulldogs and bears sporting Union Jack T’s were featured in the opening episode but in episode three, a whole scene was given over to the teddies and their animal friends - ducks and dogs, pandas and penguins, frogs and rabbits monkeys and giraffes – you name them, they were all in the spotlight.

In the story, assassin Villanelle, played by Jodie Comer visits a “shop” stuffed full of Be My Bear teddies and records a message for her adversary Eve, played by Sandra Oh, which she then places into a  pink Winged Angel Bear who became the teddy star of the show. At least Villanelle was kind to Angel and she then developed her very own cult following with Killing Eve fans from all over the world including America, Australia and France placing orders for Angel and her pink princess outfit.

More recently another of our teds – our Sebbie Teddie - was endorsed by comic celebrities Ant and Dec who supported our Kindness Hero Sebbie Hall with his on-going fundraising activities. Be My Bear has been involved with Sebbie for the last two years after learning about his kindness in gifting our bears to random strangers as one of his daily acts of kindness durting the Covid years.

His good deeds, including gifting Be My Bear’s teddy bears to households during the pandemic, led to him being chosen from 500 deserving applicants as the Kind Snacks winner for 2023. As a result he even had a statue made of him which was unveiled in the capital by Mission Impossible III and Sherlock Homes star, Eddie Marsan. Eddie is a patron of the Sebbie Hall Kindness Foundation which Sebbie and his mum Ashley set up and which has donated tens of thousands to individuals, community groups and projects. The foundation focuses largely on helping vulnerable youngsters – a cause close to Sebbie’s heart – and inspiring others to follow his example. The statue was unveiled on November 13, 2023, officially designated as World Kindness Day, celebrating Sebbie and the amazing work he does to spread kindness every day.

Who know what other TV  opportunities will present during 2024 – our cuddly celebrities are up for the next challenge and  there are rumours .... so watch this space !

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