Mary Poppins Returns: What Dick Van Dyke was REALLY like on set – according to Emily Blunt

The actress has revealed that the legend may be 93-years-old, but he was just as “lithe” as his younger co-stars on the set. Van Dyke admitted in a recent interview that he initially had “misgivings” about signing up for the family sequel, but Blunt was full of nothing but praise for him in a recent interview.

Speaking on The Graham Norton Show, she called him “so instantly magical”.

“Dick Van Dyke is so lithe, nobody could believe that it is him actually dancing,” she beamed.

“We all sat around him like kids wanting to know all about the original.

“He is so instantly magical, positive and so full of life, it was very moving having him around.”

She added: “It was very special.”

Also on the BBC chatshow, she spoke about getting the iconic role – decades after Julie Andrews made it one of the best-loved movie characters of all time.

“I was really shocked,” she recalled.

“The director called me and there was so much charged energy and preamble in the call that I thought he was about to propose!

“I was stunned and don’t quite remember quite what I said, but I was 100% ‘yes’.

“Getting the role was the last thing I expected. I was terrified and scared.

“It was my first entrance in the film that I thought, ‘Wow, this is really happening.'”

Mary Poppins Returns has had generally positive reviews, and is in cinemas from tomorrow.

The Graham Norton Show airs on Friday, December 21 at 10:35pm on BBC One.