And
>the dance

why does he have an Irish/West Country/Yorkshire accent?

>>221986355
That's a funny story. It was intended for him to have a Cockney accent, the traditional working-class accent associated with London's East End, however his accent has become famous for the wrong reason. It is widely regarded as one of the least convincing Cockney accents ever performed in a major film. Native British speakers often describe it as inconsistent, drifting between Cockney, Received Pronunciation (the stereotypical 'BBC English'), Irish, and Van Dyke's natural American accent. Even Van Dyke himself has joked about it and acknowledged that it wasn't very good. The main reason is that Van Dyke received inadequate coaching. His dialect coach was reportedly not a native Cockney speaker, and the production did not insist on greater accuracy.