Lady Patricia Routledge, who has died at the years of 96, imprinted herself on the national psyche as the snobby Hyacinth Bouquet.
Insisting it was "said Bouquet," the character trampled over her long-suffering husband and confused neighbours in the popular sitcom, one of Britain's best-loved comedies in the 1990s.
Behaving like a duchess while residing in a suburb, Bucket's over-the-top status-seeking plans were in the end doomed to failure—while she battled to keep her dignity.
It was Lady Patricia's most famous role in a career that saw her win theatrical awards on both sides of the ocean, become the star of the playwright's famous TV monologues, and star as BBC1's crime-busting Mrs. Wainthropp.
Early Life and Career Beginnings
Catherine Pat Routledge was delivered in Merseyside on 17 February 1929.
Her father was a clothier and she remembered taking cover from German air raids in the cellar of his store throughout the Second World War.
She majored in English at nearby Liverpool University and planned to become a teacher. Instead, she joined the local theatre before studying at the Bristol drama school.
Her successful stage career brought her from the regions to the West End, and eventually to New York, where Leonard Bernstein chose her to appear in his musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 1976.
She had previously won a Tony award for her acting in Darling of the Day.
She could move smoothly from lighthearted plays to serious drama.
She progressed from Shakespeare's birthplace, appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company and later to the National Theatre in the capital.
At the National, her starring role in the theatre production Carousel featured her singing the rousing You'll Never Walk Alone.
She also took several minor movie parts, especially in the 1967 film To Sir, With Love, and the comedian's comedy outing Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River.
Her theatre and broadcast performances proved her versatility and earned her accolades, but it was television that gave Routledge with her best-known characters.
TV Breakthrough and Memorable Characters
Initial small-screen work included well-liked shows like Z Cars and Steptoe and Son.
Subsequently, among Britain's most respected writers, Alan Bennett, penned a set of outstanding Talking Heads TV solos for her.
Routledge conquered her early hesitation to perform his scripts and shone as A Woman of No Importance and A Lady of Letters.
She went onto portray a isolated, mid-life department store 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 resulted in the development of Mrs. Bucket.
Routledge recalled being given the episodes by the writer, the screenwriter—known for Last of the Summer Wine and Open All Hours.
"I had opened the script for a moment at 1 a.m. in the morning," she said, "I read straight through and the character jumped off the script. I knew that woman, I'd met a few of that woman."
Keeping Up Appearances ran for five seasons and included several Christmas specials.
In a documentary, she stated that admirers had included the royal family and the pontiff.
It became the broadcaster's most exported programme ever and meant Routledge was known as distant as Africa.
For her performance on the comedy, she was chosen the UK's all-time best-loved actor in 1996, but following half a decade in the role, she felt it was the moment for a change.
"I decided to end it to an end," she said, "which, naturally, the broadcaster didn’t care for at all."
She thought that Roy Clarke was beginning to recycle ideas and recalled a bit of guidance from the comedian, the comic.
"He made sure to finish with people saying, ‘Oh, aren’t you doing any more?’ she recalled, rather than fans remarking, ‘Is that still running?’"
Later Roles and Personal Reflections
Playing the unassuming but sharp detective in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates gave her ongoing popularity on TV, but she consistently referred to the stage as "the test."
Long after she ceased appearing frequently on screen, Routledge undertook theatre tours both in the UK and overseas.
Whenever interviewers asked the inevitable question, she requested them to spell out the word retirement because, she clarified: "It's not in my vocabulary."
She never wed or had children, but told the press of a couple of great affairs in her youth, one with a married man.
"I experienced remorse and an acute sense that there had to be loss," she confessed. "I suppose I convinced myself that it was all right for the moment because his union was no a living relationship."
In place of family, she devoted herself to her craft, serving it with the talent, discipline and devotion that were consistently respected by her colleagues.
She was scathing about the BBC's decision in 2016 to revive Keeping Up Appearances, but this time set in the 1950s and featuring a more youthful version of her role.
Challenging the Corporation's approach of resurrecting old sitcoms she said, "Why are they doing this kind of thing, they have to be desperate."
She had already disagreed with the broadcaster over their decision to not commission a documentary she had written about the author the children's author (Routledge was a Patron of the literary group), which eventually aired on another network.
On turning 90, she persisted to reside quietly in Chichester, where she busied herself raising funds for the cathedral roof.
In 2017, she was appointed a Dame of the British honors system but—unlike Hyacinth—honors did not go to her head.
Dame Routledge often stated she thanked her Northern roots and solid family for providing her good sense with her time and her finances.
Even so, she confessed that, if any additional cash arrive, she'd certainly spend it on "several bottles of sparkling wine"—an appreciation of the finer pleasures in life that she shared with her most famous character.
"I never was stage-struck," she said. "I'm not stage-struck now. Nobody's more surprised than myself that I have, actually, devoted my life doing this."
