Mary Poppins Comes Back

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P L Travers". Desert Island Discs. BBC Radio 4. 1977-05-21. Audio recording of the episode featuring Travers with Roy Plumley. Like Father, Like Son: Like his father, he has grown a mustache, fathered children, is Married to the Job, and lives in the house on Cherry Tree Lane. And his children run off in the park the way he and Jane did as kids. Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: At first, William Wilkins comes off as a conventional bank president and is initially friendly to Jane and Michael when they visit the bank. Once they leave, his true colors show as he tears out their late father's records of being a shareholder and burns them in the fireplace. In the Royal Dalton Bowl, he is represented as a wolf who's just as duplicitous, making him a literal "wolf in sheep's clothing". It’s not the only moment where Travers reminds us that for all the magic she allows in this book, her world also contains deep and not so deep moments of unfairness. I am still annoyed, years later, to find that John and Barbara have to share a balloon instead of getting their own individual balloons. Sure, they are twins, but EVERYONE ELSE, even the dogs, gets a separate balloon and it just feels ALL WRONG. And the stars come out,” added Michael. “Yes, and even if they don’t—all the birds come down from the top of St Paul’s and run very carefully all over the ground just to see there are no crumbs left, and to tidy it up for the morning. And when they have done that—” “You’ve forgotten the baths.” “Oh, yes—they bath themselves and comb their wings with their claws. And when they have done that they fly three times round the head of the Bird Woman and then they settle.” “Do they sit on her shoulders?” “Yes, and on her hat.” “And on her basket with the bags in it?” “Yes, and some on her knee. Then she smooths down the head-feathers of each one in turn and tells it to be a good bird—” “In the bird language?” “Yes. And when they are all sleepy and don’t want to stay awake any longer, she spreads out her skirts, as a mother hen spreads out her wings, and the birds go creep, creep, creeping underneath. And as soon as the last one is under she settles down over them, making little brooding, nesting noises and they sleep there till morning.” Michael sighed happily. He loved the story and was never tired of hearing it. “And it’s all quite true, isn’t it?” he said, just as he always did. “No,” said Mary Poppins, who always said “No.” “Yes,” said Jane, who always knew everything…

Big Damn Heroes: At the end of the sequel, Banks performs a posthumous one of these, as his savings saves the Banks family home. Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He cares for his father greatly, defending him when he thinks Mr Banks will hurt him and desperately calling for him to come down when he starts flying from laughter.

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Hate Sink: Even more so than Katie Nanna, who, while very bumbling and fond of the bottle, was never shown to be outright abusive towards the Banks children. By contrast, Miss Andrews is an avowed Child Hater and a bully who wants to mold the children under her "care" into proper British citizens no matter how much abuse she has to put them through. To make matters worse, it almost seems like she enjoys it. The emotionally distant patriarch of the Banks household and father to Jane and Michael (along with John, Barbra, and Annabel in the books). He may seem stiff and aloof, but cares deeply for his family. Adaptational Name Change: In the novels, he's known as Constable Egbert. He was renamed "Jones" in the film and is left unnamed in the stage musical. Mr. Wigg's Birthday Party, 1952 (an adapted version of the "Laughing Gas" chapter from Mary Poppins)

Erbland, Kate (2013-12-26). "The Dark, Deep and Dramatic True Story of Saving Mr. Banks". Film.com. Archived from the original on 2016-01-05 . Retrieved 2015-05-14. Thompson, Emma (2014-01-09). "Not-So-Cheery Disposition: Emma Thompson on Poppins' Cranky Creator". Fresh Air (Interview). Interviewed by Dave Davies. NPR. Archived from the original on 2021-04-16 . Retrieved 2021-04-16.

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His life is so strictly regimented by his job that he has no time for nor interest in his children until Mary Poppins presses the issue.

Witchell, Alex (1994-09-22). "At Home With: P. L. Travers; Where Starlings Greet the Stars". The New York Times . Retrieved 2013-11-21.A no-nonsense magical nanny who comes into the lives of the Banks family of London, England, via a literal gust of wind. She acts stern and vain, but the Banks children become involved with the most mystical occurrences in her company.

a b c d e f g h i j "Goff, Helen Lyndon [ pseuds. P. L. Travers, Pamela Lyndon Travers]". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/62619. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

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Evil Old Folks: She's old enough to have been George Banks's governess, and now she's out to give the next generation of the Banks children some brimstone and treacle. Twenty-six vignettes (one for each letter of the alphabet) weave unexpected tales of Mary Poppins, the Banks children, and other characters from Travers's previous novels. Each vignette is filled with fun and unusual words that start with the featured letter.