Dick Van Dyke finally apologises for 'atrocious accent'

Dick Van Dyke has apologised for his "atrocious" cockney accent as Bert the chimney sweep in Disney's 1964 classic Mary Poppins.

The American actor, 91, made the comments after he was chosen by Bafta to receive The Britannia Award For Excellence In Television this October, reports the Daily Mail.

He joked: "I appreciate this opportunity to apologise to the members of Bafta for inflicting on them the most atrocious cockney accent in the history of cinema."

The star has long been derided for his attempt at an east end accent, but this is the first time he has publicly apologised for his efforts.

In 2014 he said: "People in the UK love to rib me about my accent, I will never live it down.

"They ask what part of England I was meant to be from and I say it was a little shire in the north where most of the people were from Ohio."

In the film, Van Dyke's attempted cockney drawl saw him utter phrases such as "Now this im-posin' edifice what first meets the eye is the 'ome of Admiral Boom".

Other remarks, which saw him liberally dropping his vowels, included "The constable - responstable! Now 'ow does that sound?"

But Van Dyke claimed he had no idea during the making of the film that there was anything wrong with his accent.

He said: "I was working with an entire English cast and nobody said a word, not Julie [Andrews], not anybody said I needed to work on it, so I thought I was alright."

His award recognises those whose special talents and appeal have elevated television and Van Dyke's more than seven-decade career has been deemed worthy of the honour.

CEO of Bafta Los Angeles Chantal Rickards said: "We are absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to honour the iconic Dick Van Dyke at this year's British Academy Britannia Awards.

"We truly are in a golden age of television and we couldn't think of a better way to recognise this than by celebrating someone who was at the forefront of making it the global medium that it has become.

• This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission.