Dick van Dyke sends Mary Poppins fans into meltdown as he confirms he will star in classic film’s sequel
The 91-year-old actor will be singing and dancing once again in the sequel that comes 54 years after the original
DICK Van Dyke has confirmed that he will be taking part in the Mary Poppins sequel.
The 91-year-old actor appeared as chimney sweep Bert and elderly banker Mr Dawes opposite Julie Andrews in the timeless 1964 film and will be returning to London to shoot the sequel in Spring 2017.
Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, he said: "This one supposedly takes place 20 years later and the kids are all grown up.
"It's a great cast - Meryl Streep, Angela Lansbury and that guy from Hamilton [Lin-Manuel Miranda]."
The legendary actor will be playing the role of Mr Dawes’ in the film that will be released and fans will be thrilled to learn that he’ll be singing and dancing once again.
“I’ll be going to London in the spring to do my role,” he said, “and I get to do a little song-and-dance number. I gotta be a part of it.”
The film is set in the 1930s and see now grown up children, Jane and Michael Banks, being visited by their former nanny Marry Poppins following a bereavement.
Colin Firth, Emily Mortimer, Emily Blunt and Ben Whishaw have also signed up.
Droves of fans took to Twitter to celebrate the return of Dick in Mary Poppins, writing “Amazing! Love Dick Van Dyke!” and “Love how Dick Van Dyke is 91 but tell him there’s a Mary Poppins sequel and he’s all over that sh*t.”
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Of course, aside from his singing and dancing in the original film, the American actor is also renowned for his terrible cockney accent - however he recently revealed that no one in the cast and crew bothered to tell him.
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.”