The sound of it was something quite atrocious, but we've come to adore Dick Van Dyke's questionable stab at a cockney accent.
Dick Van Dyke — who on Saturday 13 December 2025 celebrates his 100th birthday — isn't a Londoner, and yet he gave us the most celebrated (and lambasted) London accent the world ever knew. "If someone from the UK sees me, they're on me like a pack of wolves. It was the worst cockney accent ever done," grinned Van Dyke once.
Born in West Plains, Missouri in December 1925, Van Dyke climbed the showbiz ladder — radio presenter, stage comedian, Broadway star — before hitting the big time as Rob Petrie in the Dick Van Dyke Show. If you've not seen it, it's a doozy of a sitcom which stands the test of time. It's all up on YouTube in crisp quality too.
Why not start out with this Brit-centric episode, where Rob has to take in a pair of Beatlesesque pop stars:
The role most Brits remember Van Dyke for is as the chimney sweep/jack-of-all-trades Bert, in the Disney musical Mary Poppins. It had its UK premiere over 60 years ago, on 23 December 1964, and ever since, generation after generation has fallen in love with the Disney-Travers fairy tale riff on London — one where you can leap into pavement paintings, and tap dance on the rooftops. "There have only been two times in my career when I have known that I had a chance to be involved with something special," wrote Van Dyke in his 2011 autobiography, My Lucky Life. "The first was The Dick Van Dyke Show, and the second was when I read the script for Poppins."
But there was a niggle with Van Dyke's Bert: his accent was something quite atrocious. As the decades passed, Van Dyke's 'cockney' accent remained firmly at the top of the Dodgy Accent League. People — especially Brits — roundly derided it. In 2017, actors voted it as the worst British accent by an American of all time.
As you'd expect, the lovable Van Dyke admitted his tonal shortcomings, even going on record to apologise for 'inflicting the most atrocious cockney accent in the history of cinema.'
It wasn't entirely his fault: "They only sent a coach to me once for that accent and he was an Irishman — his cockney accent was not much better than mine," said Van Dyke once. He also argued that during the production of Mary Poppins, no one had pointed out the iffy accent to him, despite most of the cast being Brits. Years later, he asked Julie Andrews why she hadn't mentioned; she replied she could see he was already working hard at trying to get the accent down. Come to think of it, politely declining to mention someone else's shortcomings is an entirely British thing to do.
What exactly was wrong with the accent? Among Van Dyke's misdemeanours, he uses American rhotacism, forgets to lose his H's, and drops various other American clangers, such as opening up the vowel sounds. Some of the accent is actually perfectly passable; it's just wildly inconsistent. But honestly, would any of us change it for the world? It is, after all, the sound of our childhoods. (And anyway, the worst cockney accent of all time really belongs to Don Cheadle.)
Van Dyke plays two characters in Mary Poppins, and the secondary one is surely more credible. As a primary school kid watching the film in the assembly hall, I remember being astounded when the end credits roll, and the crumbly Mr Dawes Senior is shown to be played by Navckid Keyd, before the letters swirl around and rearrange into 'Dick Van Dyke'. Van Dyke has to work for this role too: Walt Disney insisted Van Dyke tested for the role, despite already being cast as Bert. "The crew ate it up," Van Dyke recalls about his audition in My Lucky Life. "so did Walt." The two main child actors Karen Dotrice (Jane) and Matthew Garber (Michael) were kept in the dark about Van Dyke's semi-incognito role, and were concerned during shooting that the 'old man' in front of them might collapse. A reminder if we needed it that Van Dyke really is a fine actor.
At 100 years young, Dick Van Dyke no longer requires much makeup to become Mr Dawes Senior but he's still got the stamina to play him. Indeed Van Dyke made a joyous cameo as Dawes Senior in the 2018 sequel Mary Poppins Returns — this time, an old man himself. "I may be circling the grave," smiles Dawes, "but I've got a few steps left in me."
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