Praise for new Poppins but Julie Andrews ‘incomparable’

Dick Van Dyke has praised Emily Blunt’s performance as Mary Poppins but said “nobody compares” to Dame Julie Andrews after completing his work on the Disney sequel.

The 91-year-old star said he travelled to London last month to film a “song and dance number on a desk” for Mary Poppins Returns, which will be released on Christmas Day 2018.

Van Dyke, who played chimney sweep Bert in the original 1964 movie, said his work on the new film was “kind of a book end for me”.

He said “We just did the sequel to Mary Poppins in London and I did a song and dance number on a desk.

“It used to be when you do a dance number, you did like 20 takes at different angles. They put four cameras up and you do one take. Boy, at my age is that a blessing.”

He added: “Nobody compares to Julie Andrews but Emily’s going to be a good Mary. The Girl On The Train is going to be Mary Poppins.”

Appearing at the Professional Dancers Society’s Gypsy Awards Luncheon in Los Angeles, Van Dyke said he will play the son of the “old banker” from the original film in Mary Poppins Returns.

“I just love the movie and I wanted to be in it,” he said. They made me up anyway, even though I’m old enough to do it without the make-up.”

Mary Poppins Returns tells the story of an older Jane and Michael Banks and Michael’s three children, who are visited by Poppins in the aftermath of a “personal loss” in Depression-hit London.

Blunt replaces Dame Julie as the famous title character, while Meryl Streep, Dame Angela Lansbury and Colin Firth also have roles in the movie, Van Dyke said. Comment

Emily Blunt