From the Mirror archives

November 12, 1967

Hollywood legend Dick Van Dyke drives Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the parade for the Lord Mayor of London’s Show. In Britain where production of the 1968 children’s classic was based, the Mary Poppins star claimed he repeatedly turned down the part of eccentric inventor Caractacus Potts, and was only persuaded when producer Cubby Broccoli offered a seven-figure sum – almost unheard of then.