Famous Nannies!

Nannies have been depicted in all sorts of ways over the years in books and films, here are some of the most famous...

Mary Poppins: the all singing, all dancing and rather beautiful Nanny of the two sweet little Edwardian children, Jane and Michael Banks.  The film saw Mary (played by Julie Andrews) jump into pavement drawings, win a horse race on a carousel horse and take tea and cake on the ceiling!  She looked after the children with a firm but certainly magical and neatly gloved hand.  She was famous for the tidying of the nursery with a song, a little dance and the famous "spoonful of sugar"!

Nanny McPhee: slightly less beautiful, but all the more direct Nanny played by Emma Thompson in the 2005 and 2010 films.  She begins her tale rather grusome and threatening to the wayward children and as time goes by loses her ugliness.  She instills five important lessons to the children and as they learn each one, so she becomes more attractive and loses her warts, grey straggly hair and droopy ear lobes.

• Lesson 1: To go to bed when told
• Lesson 2: To get up when told
• Lesson 3: To get dressed when told
• Lesosn 4: To listen and say thank you
• Lesson 5: To do as they are told

Nana: the Newfoundland dog in Peter Pan is a huge cuddly dog wearing a mop cap that looks after the Darling children.  It's only when Nana is tied up and unable to protect them that the children head off with the magical pixie Peter Pan and disappear to Neverland to have their adventures.  One surmises that had Nana not been thrown out of the house by Father, the children would have remained safe.

Mrs Doubtfire: the wonderfully funny Robin Williams as the homely Nanny of 3 American children.  The film was made in 1993 and is hailed as one of the hundred most funny films of all times.  The plot tells of an out of work actor who takes a job as a Nanny to his own children by dressing up in full make-up, including prosthetic hips and frilly aprons.  The consequences are hilarious!