Dick Van Dyke rescued at sea by porpoises. Yes... really!

Christmas is fast approaching, but the fact that 84-year-old Dick Van Dyke is back making headline news has nothing to do with Mary Poppins / Chitty Chitty Bang Bang reruns, and everything to do with the extraordinary circumstances surrounding his rescue from a recent near-death experience out at sea.

Dick Van Dyke had apparently drifted off to sleep on his surfboard at his local beach, waking later to found himself very much alone, and far out at sea. Then, in a scene reminiscent of one of his movies, he was rescued. Flying car? Mysterious nanny with supernatural powers? Magical dinosaur bones? No. By a pod of porpoises... "I'm not kidding!" he told reporters.

"I woke up out of sight of land," explained the actor, "and I started paddling with the swells and I started seeing fins swimming around me and I thought 'I'm dead!' They turned out to be porpoises, and they pushed me all the way to shore."

Now that really is the headline of the day. Dick Van Dyke rescued at sea by porpoises. You just couldn't make it up. Not even if you actually were Dick Van Dyke...

We can only assume that the porpoises were fans of Dick Van Dyke's earlier work because, let's face it, if they'd seen Diagnosis Murder, he'd still be out there heading for China!