Practically perfect, the new Mary Poppins

Emily Blunt looked “practically perfect in every way” as she donned an elegant white dress with billowing sleeves for the world premiere of Mary Poppins Returns. The British actress, 35, paired the dreamy gown with chandelier earrings on the red carpet in Los Angeles. And to coin the title of a song in the 1964 original film, there was a Step [back] In Time as Dick Van Dyke, 92, who played “cockney” chimney sweep Bert, attended the gala.

He looked dapper in a navy blue suit and bright aqua green tie and was joined at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre by wife Arlene Silver, 47 – 45 years his junior.

Devil Wears Prada actress Ms Blunt steps into Julie Andrews’ shoes as the much-loved British nanny more than 50 years after she charmed audiences.

Ms Andrews, 83, won a Best Actress Oscar for playing the mysterious visitor who flew in on an umbrella.

The film will see Poppins return to London in the early 20th century to help the now adult Banks children.

Also starring Ben Whishaw, 38, Emily Mortimer, 46, Meryl Streep, 69, and Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, 38, it features all the whimsical magic of the original, including a return of the animated dancing penguins.

Ms Blunt, as Poppins, inset, said: “It really is a trip down nostalgia lane, paying homage to these incredible movies we grew up watching that are so representative of everything we remember as children.

“Yet we are doing something new and I think it’s a film that’s just full of feeling and full of joy.”

The director Rob Marshall, 58, said he became involved in the sequel because he felt the world needed some Poppins magic.

“The world’s in a fragile place you know,” he said. “I feel it personally and I know that everyone on our film felt it, the entire cast.”

Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns will be released in British cinemas on December 21.