Wednesday, August 17, 2011

The Dick Van Dyke School for Cockney Studies

Just catching up on the backlog. Haven't updated the blog in forever, so there are 50 or 60 Dick Van Dyke references to catch up on.

* * *
Obsessed With Film, March 30th, 2011, "TV Review: Martina Cole's THE RUNAWAY" by Simon Gallagher.

Everyone looks like they’re fresh from the Danny Dyer/Tamer Hassan school of acting (which incidentally owes a lot to the Dick Van Dyke school for Cockney Studies).


* * *
RPG Fan, April 1st, 2011, "April Fools 2011: Details on the Possible Final Kingdom Hearts Title" by John Tucker.

The biggest surprises, though, come in the form of new worlds. Having already explored many iconic Disney worlds in previous Kingdom Hearts games, Square Enix is now branching out into new territory. Over the years, many have mocked Dick Van Dyke's attempt at a cockney accent, but we'll be hearing it again when he joins the party in a Mary Poppins-themed world.


* * *

Philadelphia Magazine, April 1st, 2011, "Review: “Mary Poppins” at the Academy of Music" by Aaron Mettey.

Yet for all of the effort made to ensure Mary looks/acts like Julie Andrews’s Mary, more care should have been taken with casting Bert. Inevitably, you can’t imagine anyone other than Dick Van Dyke playing Bert—horrible accent, and all. So Nicolas Dromard is already at a disadvantage. No matter how much he is able to bring/b to the role (which is actually quite a lot), I couldn’t help but want someone lankier, someone more … well, Van Dyke-ian.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Impressions of DVD; Never Not Funny!

This Is Fake DIY, March 10, 2011, "Matthew Fox's West End Stage Debut" by Becky Reed.

Before then, we were treated to a meaty 45-minute talk on this particular night. Fox and Williams relaxed on the set sofa, wine in hand (red for Matthew, white for Olivia), while LaBute entertained us with shit Dick Van Dyke impressions whilst sipping on a Coke.

Dick Van Dyke, Dialect Preservationist

News Shopper, March 9th, 2011, "Chas 'n' Dave take farewell tour to The Orchard and IndigO2" by Matthew Jenkin.

And with the news last summer the famous cockney dialect will be all but a memory within a generation, preserved in vintage episodes of EastEnders and shonky Dick Van Dyke films, should we shed a tear for the end of an era?



Saddest Love Story

The Vine, March 9th, 2011 "Mary Poppins- the saddest unrequited love story Disney ever made" by Vera Bermuda

I’m sure as a child I realised there must have been something between Mary and Bert. After all, as other movies had shown me, if there was a male and female character of the same age and species, they would naturally be in love by the film’s end. Mary and Bert never so much as kiss in the film, but the flirtation is clear and, as I discovered yesterday, the on-screen chemistry between Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke is palpable. There are meaningful looks, warm compliments, tender physical contact, but at the end of the film Mary is gone, flying off into the smoggy London sky, and the romance between herself and Bert remains unrequited.

From the beginning of the film the connection between the two is established. As Bert attempts to earn a few bob as a one-man band in the film’s initial scene the wind picks up and he is overtaken by a kind of reverie. Lost in the moment he casts his eyes skyward and with an anticipatory chill (and a terrible cockney accent) sings:

Can’t put me finger on what lies in store
But I feel what’s to ‘appen, all ‘appened before.




Accent Toned Down Below DVD Level: Media Complains About Earlier Level

Daily Mirror, July 7th, 2011, "Law And Order: UK - ITV1, 9pm" by Jane Simon

Not least because Jamie Bamber’s Dick Van Dyke mockney accent has been toned down so that you’re not expecting Chas and Dave to gatecrash proceedings at any moment for a tinkle on the old Joanna.

DVD's Accent is as English as Muffins To an Australian

The Age, March 5, 2011, "Divide and Conquer" by Graham Hunter

Liverpool FC (''we are Britain's kings of Europe'') face Manchester United (''we are the richest, we are the most talked about'') in a battle royale.

This is the Premiership's fiercest rivalry. It should be as English as muffins, whingeing, rain, crumpets, cream and jam, Walkabout Pubs, Dick Van Dyke doing a horrible accent in Mary Poppins and Sir Ian Botham crowing about the cricket.