Don't go into a bear enclosure in a soft top Panda

This is a bear story for Nicola Makoway, my publicist in Canada. She is from the UK and I worry that she might be home sick with all this cold weather. I wanted to find her a bear story from the other side of the pond.What I came up with is Valerie from Surrey, who tells a cracker of a bear story on The Graham Norton Show.

The story takes place in a bear enclosure near Paris.For those not acquainted with a Panda 'soft top', it's a car with an open roof that has sturdy fabric to pull across for cover.

Not a bad idea as a mid-point between a convertible and a roof, but not enough to keep the bears at bay--is it?Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. don't seem to think so. Especially as Valerie and her family were only armed with peanuts.For the record, I disagree with Eddie Izzard's critique of Valerie's story telling at minute 2:43, that she needed to bring the bear closer to the front of her story.That may be true in some cases, but for this particular bear story a slow, mundane lead up is just right.

And I like Valerie's dead pan delivery. I quite like Valerie.