That’s right last week marked 60 years since the release of Mary Poppins in cinemas and it has stayed around and delighted many generations from that moment forward. This is one of those films that I find strange if someone has not seen it, I think I exhausted my VHS tape (yes, I am that old) from watching and rewinding and watching again. Julie Andrews is practically perfect in every way as Mary Poppins and you cannot help but love the character. This was Julie Andrews big break after the controvesary of her not being cast in My Fair Lady having played the role to perfection on stage, and she started filming Poppins in 1963 ahead of the 1964 release date, I mean I guess it all worked out nicely in the end though given that she walked away with an Oscar for her efforts on the film.

Over the years we have had many different additions and further adaptations from Mary Poppins. It took all the way to 2004 for the stage musical version to be first performed and since then it has not only played on Broadway and in London’s West End but on tours around the world. I caught it in Newcastle on a UK tour in 2016 and it certainly manages to capture so much magic and transfer to the stage, but for me the special nature of the original film will always be difficult to beat.

In 2013 we had Saving Mr Banks which was loosely based around Walt Disney attempting to get the rights to the film from P.L. Travers who managed to resist for many years and often claimed that she did not like the film due to it being so different from her books. As a huge Mary Poppins fan I did enjoy that film though as it was just more to learn around the film being made. In 2018 we eventually got an always wanted sequel in Mary Poppins Returns with Emily Blunt taking over from Julie Andrews in the title role of Mary.

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