Lady Patricia Routledge, who has died at the years of 96, imprinted herself on the British consciousness as the snobby Mrs. Bucket.
Declaring it was "pronounced Bouquet," the character ran roughshod over her long-suffering husband and confused neighbours in the popular sitcom, one of Britain's best-loved sitcoms in the 1990s.
Behaving like a duchess while living in a suburb, Hyacinth's monstrous status-seeking schemes were in the end doomed to failure—while she battled to maintain her composure.
It was Lady Routledge's most famous role in a career that included her earn stage awards on both sides of the Atlantic, emerge as the star of the playwright's celebrated TV monologues, and star as BBC1's crime-busting Mrs. Wainthropp.
Early Life and Start in Acting
Catherine Patricia Routledge was delivered in Merseyside on 17 February 1929.
Her dad was a clothier and she remembered sheltering from enemy bombs in the cellar of his store during the war.
She majored in English at local the University of Liverpool and intended to teach. Instead, she entered the local theatre before studying at the Bristol Old Vic.
Her successful stage journey brought her from the regions to the West End, and finally to New York, where Leonard Bernstein selected her to star in his musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 1976.
She had already received a Tony honor for her acting in Darling of the Day.
She could move smoothly from lighthearted plays to classics.
She went from Shakespeare's birthplace, appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company and later to the London's national stage in London.
At the National, her lead role in the theatre production Carousel involved her singing the inspiring You'll Never Walk Alone.
She also took several minor movie parts, notably in the 1967 film To Sir, With Love, and the Jerry Lewis funny film Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River.
Her stage and radio performances demonstrated her range and won her awards, but it was television that provided Routledge with her best-known roles.
Television Breakthrough and Iconic Roles
Initial television appearances featured well-liked shows like Z Cars and Steptoe and Son.
Subsequently, among Britain's most respected writers, Alan Bennett, wrote a set of outstanding Talking Heads TV solos for her.
Routledge conquered her initial reluctance to perform his material and shone as A Woman of No Importance and A Lady of Letters.
She later portray a isolated, mid-life shop assistant drawn into a affair with a unconventional foot doctor in Bennett's Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet.
A comic turn as the exaggerated Kitty on The Victoria Wood Show led to the creation of Hyacinth Bouquet.
Routledge recalled being sent the episodes by the author, Roy Clarke—who had also done Last of the Summer Wine and Open All Hours.
"I had opened the script for a while at 1 a.m. in the morning," she recalled, "I read straight through and the character leapt off the script. I recognized that lady, I'd met several of that type."
Keeping Up Appearances ran for five seasons and included four holiday episodes.
In a film, she later claimed that admirers had numbered Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and Pope Benedict XVI.
It became the broadcaster's most exported show ever and meant Routledge was known as distant as Botswana.
For her performance on the sitcom, she was chosen the UK's all-time best-loved actress in 1996, but after half a decade in the part, she felt it was the moment for a change.
"I decided to end it to an close," she explained, "which, naturally, the BBC wasn't pleased with at all."
She believed that Roy Clarke was beginning to recycle concepts and mentioned a bit of guidance from the performer, the comic.
"He always left with people asking, ‘Oh, won't you do any more?’ she recalled, rather than people remarking, ‘Is that still on?’"
Later Work and Personal Life
Playing the homely but sharp detective in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates gave her continued popularity on television, but she consistently referred to the theatre as "the test."
Long after she ceased appearing regularly on screen, Routledge made theatre tours equally in the UK and abroad.
If interviewers posed the predictable inquiry, she asked them to spell out the word retirement since, she explained: "It's not in my lexicon."
She did not wed or raised kids, but informed interviewers of a couple of great romances in her youth, including one with a wedded man.
"I experienced guilt and an sharp feeling that there would be loss," she admitted. "I guess I persuaded myself that it was acceptable for the time being because his union was not a vibrant thing."
Instead, she devoted herself to her craft, honoring it with the talent, discipline and commitment that were consistently admired by her peers.
She was critical about the broadcaster's choice in 2016 to bring back Keeping Up Appearances, but on this occasion placed in the 1950s and starring a more youthful incarnation of her role.
Challenging the network's policy of resurrecting old comedies she said, "Why are they attempting this kind of project, they must be desperate."
She had already disagreed with the BBC over its decision to not order a film she had authored about the writer the children's author (she was a supporter of the literary group), which finally aired on another network.
On turning 90, she continued to reside peacefully in the city, where she busied herself collecting funds for the church roof.
In 2017, she was appointed a Dame of the British honors system but—in contrast to Hyacinth—titles never affect her mind.
Dame Routledge often stated she credited her north of England roots and stable background for giving her good sense with her life and her finances.
Even so, she confessed that, should any extra cash arrive, she'd definitely use it on "a case of sparkling wine"—an love of the better things in existence that she had in common with her best-remembered creation.
"I never was stage-struck," she said. "I am not stage-struck today. No one is more surprised than I am that I've, actually, spent my career doing this."
