Was there life after Poppins?
QUESTION Other than Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, what happened to the rest of the cast of the film Mary Poppins?
The supporting cast of Mary Poppins, released in 1964, featured distinguished actors who had mixed fortunes before and after making the film.
David Tomlinson, who played the father Mr Banks, made his film debut in Garrison Follies in 1940.
After Mary Poppins, most of his films were aimed at children. Two for Disney, The Love Bug in 1968 and Bedknobs And Broomsticks in 1971, were hits.
Tomlinson suffered tragedy when his first wife, Mary, committed suicide in 1943 by jumping, with her two young sons from a previous marriage, from a New York skyscraper. he married for a second time and had four children.
his last film was 1980’s The Fiendish Plot Of Dr Fu Manchu, starring Peter Sellers. he died in 2000, aged 83.
Glynis Johns, who played the mother, Mrs Banks, was born in South Africa in 1923 and made her film debut aged 15 in South Riding. her breakthrough role was as the amorous mermaid in the 1948 hit comedy Miranda, and she became one of Britain’s top female stars of the Fifties.
She was nominated for the best supporting actress Oscar for The Sundowners in 1960, but lost out to Shirley Jones in elmer Gantry.
Johns turned to the stage. her greatest triumph was as Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music, for which she won a Tony award in 1973. Stephen Sondheim wrote the show’s hit song Send In The Clowns to suit her distinctive husky voice, but she lost the part in the 1977 film version to elizabeth Taylor. her last film appearance was in Superstar in 1999.
She married four times and had one son. She once said that being a star had not been easy, making her ill, exhausted and depressed. In her mid-90s, she is enjoying a well-deserved retirement.
Jane Banks was played by Karen Dotrice. Born in Guernsey in 1955, she is the daughter of actor Roy Dotrice and sister of Michele, who is best known for playing Betty in the TV sitcom Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’em. Mary Poppins was the second of a trio of Disney films she made, the others being The Three Lives Of Thomasina in 1963 and The Gnome-Mobile in 1967.
Dotrice played the maid, Lily hawkins, in the final series of the Seventies TV hit Upstairs, Downstairs, and was Robert Powell’s leading lady in the third screen version of The Thirty Nine Steps.
Married to her second husband, TV producer Ned Nalle, she is a mother of three and had a cameo in Mary Poppins Returns as the ‘elegant lady’.
Matthew Garber, who played the son, Michael Banks, was born in 1956 in Stepney, east London. he appeared in the three Disney films alongside Karen Dotrice, then gave up acting. During a trip to India in 1977, he contracted hepatitis and, shortly after returning to London, he died of pancreatitis aged 21.
ellen, the Banks family maid, was played by renowned character actress hermione Baddeley, the sister of Angela Baddeley, who played Mrs Bridges in Upstairs, Downstairs.
In the Sixties, hermione appeared alongside Doris Day in Do Not Disturb and Frank Sinatra in Marriage On The Rocks and had great success with the U.S. TV comedy series Maude, winning a Golden Globe in 1976. She died in 1986, aged 79.
John Rutherford, Sevenoaks, Kent.
QUESTION Where does the phrase ‘the powers that be’ come from?
IT APPEARS in the Bible, Romans 13 1-2: ‘Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: The powers that be are ordained of God.’
It is a controversial passage as its author, Paul, is writing to believers in Rome and exhorting them to adhere to the authority of those in charge, even if the government is wicked, because God has ordained it so.
On the face of it, Paul appears to be promoting the discredited doctrines of divine right and passive obedience.
But in reading Romans 13, it is important to bear in mind the historical context. Roman emperor Claudius had expelled the Jews from Rome some time between AD41 and 54 because of agitation sparked by ‘Chrestus’ (whether this refers to Christ is under debate).
Though the Jews had returned, the political situation was still volatile.
Paul may also have been concerned about the possible influence of a group of radical Jews known as Zealots, who opposed the rule of Rome.
So Paul may have been giving practical advice to believers on how to survive under tyranny.
Neil German, Ipswich, Suffolk.
QUESTION Diplomats at the U.S. embassy in Havana, Cuba, claimed they were under sonic attack from microwave weapons. Was this the case?
IN LATE 2016, U.S. diplomats in havana began to report ear pain, headaches and nausea due to a high-frequency noise.
The symptoms, which doctors said were similar to concussion, were exhausting and lingered for weeks.
In 2017, Washington withdrew half its embassy staff from Cuba and expelled Cuban diplomats in the belief they had been targeted by an acoustic weapon.
A sample of the noise, a persistent, high-pitched drone, was released to the Press. Analysis of the audio recording revealed that the noise is almost certainly the song of the Indies short-tailed cricket, Anurogryllus celerinictus.
The call of this Caribbean species is delivered at an unusually high rate, which gives humans the sensation of a continuous sharp trill. Kevin Abrahams, Cardiff.
WE APOLOGISE that the wrong photograph was used to illustrate yesterday’s answer about A Band Called O.
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