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Moments into Tom's initial call with producers, he started composing a song that remains in the musical five years later. "I think I wrote five songs in that first process and they're all still in the show," he says. "I know on paper 'that guy from McFly' may be an odd choice, but I was in musicals from the age of nine. "I never thought I would end up in a band. "For me, this is a return to what I love," he says, decades after playing the lead in Oliver! at the London Palladium. As for Paddington: The Musical's star, Tom first met him two years ago. The bear's design and technology waited in the wings while the cast and production was pulled together around it. "You never forget when you first meet Paddington," Tom says, echoing a sentiment almost everyone involved tells Newsbeat with a glassy look in their eyes. "I just burst into tears," says Tom. "Once we met him, we all thought: 'This is going to work, and it's going to be so special'."
