Mary Poppins (character) Mary Poppins (character) Mary Poppins is a fictional character and the eponymous protagonist of P. L. Travers's "Mary Poppins" books and all of their adaptations. A magical English nanny, she blows in on the East Wind and arrives at the Banks home at Number Seventeen Cherry Tree Lane, London, where she is given charge of the Banks children and teaches them valuable lessons with a magical touch. Travers gives Poppins the accent and vocabulary of a real London nanny: cockney base notes overlaid with a strangled gentility. Julie Andrews, who played the character in the 1964 film adaptation, won the
Mary Poppins in the film but does appear in the musical. In the musical, he sings the song "Let's Go Fly a Kite" with Bert and the children. The Matchman or "Bert" is Mary Poppins's friend. In the books, when the weather is fine, he draws lifelike pictures on the pavement with chalk, but when it rains he instead sells matches and is thus known as the Matchman. Mary Poppins sometimes goes on outings with Bert on her Second Thursday off. Bert is also friendly with the Banks children and the other residents of Cherry Tree Lane. As well as match selling