Dick Van Dyke complains nobody in the Mary Poppins cast told him his Cockney accent was rubbish
The 91-year-old claims the musical's star Julie Andrews told him years later she had felt too bad to admit the truth since she knew how hard he was trying
VETERAN actor Dick Van Dyke has revealed nobody told him his Cockney accent in Mary Poppins was “dodgy”.
Van Dyke, 91, who played jack-of-all-trades Bert in the 1964 hit musical, added it didn’t help that his voice coach was Irish.
He said: “Someone should have told me I needed to work on my cockney accent.
"I was given an Irish coach whose Cockney was much better than mine."
The star, who has five Emmys, a Tony, a Grammy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award to his name, complained that not even the movie's star Julie Andrews had told him his accent needed work.
He said: “Nearly everyone in the Mary Poppins cast was a Brit but no one said anything.”
“Years later I asked Julie Andrews ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ - she said it was because I was working so hard.”
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Despite having a seven-decade entertainment career under his belt, the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang star admitted he has no plans to slow down anytime soon.
Van Dyke said: “I would like to live to be 100. I’m working on it. I dance every day and go to the gym.”