Dick Van Dyke has paid tribute to his former co-star Mary Tyler Moore.

The actress, who has died aged 80, got her big career break in 1961 when she was cast as the actor’s wife on The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Now Mary Poppins star Dick, 91, has told the Hollywood Reporter: “She was just the best.”

“I don’t know what made her comic timing so great… Mary just picked it up so fast. She had us all laughing after a couple of episodes. That show was the best five years of my life.”

He said of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in which she played one of TV’s first independent career women: “It was a milestone, that show. It kicked off an awful lot of enthusiasm in a lot of women. She got it moving!”

He added: “Just to watch her grow was such a thrill for me. She left an imprint on television comedy.”