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.

Spot On!

This is a slide show of twenty entries. Couple of new additions to the roster of actors with bad accents include: Humphrey Bogart's attempt at an Irish brogue in Dark Victory; Mickey Rooney's yellowface performance in Breakfast at Tiffany's; Demi Moore's awful British accent in Flawless. Bonus -- includes links to YouTube clips.

Toronto Sun, March 2, 2011, "Worst Movie Accents".

WHO: Dick Van Dyke as Bert. MOVIE: “Mary Poppins” (1964). ACCENT SUPPOSED TO BE: British (Cockney). SOUNDS LIKE: A man who needs a new dialect coach.

Dr. Mark Sloan and Mr. Hyde

BroadwayWorld.com, March 1, 2011, "JEKYLL AND HYDE, New Wimbledon Theatre" by Gary Naylor

After Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse wrought almost as thoroughgoing a transformation on the tale as Doctor Jekyll did to himself, this version provides plenty of setpiece songs, mercifully few special effects and costume changes and yet more opportunities to hear that stage Cockney accent that owes rather more to Dick Van Dyke than to the East End of London..

An Oscar Nod

An English actor who can do a good American accent, chided for reverting to an English accent. Hoo-kay.

The Telegraph, Feb. 28, 2011, "Oscars 2011 highlights: best and worst moments" by Anita Singh

And an honourable mention for Christian Bale, who had an American accent a while back but now appears to be channelling Dick Van Dyke.