The 91-year-old jokingly blamed Julie Andrews, who played Mary, and promised he has improved for the upcoming sequel, Mary Poppins Returns, due next year.
The star, who played Bert the chimney sweep in the 1964 Disney classic, was honoured with the Excellence In Television award by Bafta Los Angeles – a branch of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
For years he was mocked for his efforts, and in July he apologised to the academy “for inflicting on them the most atrocious cockney accent in the history of cinema”.
On Friday night he was at Bafta’s Britannia Awards, which recognise outstanding British talent and exceptional international talent connected to the British industry.
Accepting the accolade from Kevin Spacey, he said: “I appreciate this on several levels, actually.
For one thing, I’m assuming that after 60 years of bad jokes, I’m off the hook for excoriating the Cockney dialect.”
He told the audience he has “a million excuses” and blamed the cast for not telling him to improve on his accent, adding: “I blame Julie Andrews as much as anybody.”
Van Dyke also said he only received an hour’s coaching on the accent from an Irishman named Pat Mahoney.
But having a dialect coach “figuratively handcuffed to me” has ensured he has improved for his role in the Mary Poppins sequel, he added.
Later, Claire Foy, who played a young Queen Elizabeth II in the fi rst two series of the Netflix series The Crown, praised Van Dyke’s accent and told him to ignore jokes from ceremony presenter Jack Whitehall.
She said: “Dick Van Dyke, as a British person and as the Queen of England, can I just say your accent’s perfect.”
Claire, 33, also said she was “overjoyed” that Olivia Colman will take over from her in the hit drama.
The Peep Show and Broadchurch actress, 43, will play The Queen for series three and four.
Claire said: “I just love her. I admire her so much and the idea that we sort of will be doing the same job but not actually working together is just enough. I’m honoured by that.”
Speaking from the red carpet where she was crowned Artist Of The Year at the ceremony, Claire said she had only two bits of advice for Colman.
“The only thing I would say is take vitamins and get lots of sleep,” she smiled.
Claire was handed her award by John Lithgow, who played Winston Churchill in the fi rst season, and who also praised Colman.
He said: “She’s an amazing, miraculous actor.”
The ceremony at The Beverly Hilton hotel saw Sir Kenneth Branagh handed the award for Worldwide Contribution to Entertainment.
American Ava DuVernay was handed the Excellence in Directing award, while Matt Damon was honoured with the Excellence in Film award.
Master Of None star and creator Aziz Ansar received the Excellence in Comedy accolade.