Page 4 | Dame Patricia Routledge RIP

Mycatiscute · 2025-10-03T10:37:58+00:00

Also known as, Mrs Bucket (pronounced bouquet) What an actress of her time! I still enjoy watching ‘Keeping up Appearances’ now 96 wonderful years. Rest in Peace. ❤️

OhNoNotSusan · 03/10/2025 17:59

i liked Lady of Letters, Alan Bennett
i never saw Keeping up appearances

SprayWhiteDung · 03/10/2025 18:02

BeanQuisine · 03/10/2025 13:13

A good long life and a fine performer.

My mother hated Keeping Up Appearances but I enjoyed it. It was predictable but always amusing.

Was it a little too close to home for your Mum?!

AramintaWildbloode · 03/10/2025 18:06

Wherever she is now I hope there is room for a pony.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 03/10/2025 18:16

BatchCookBabe · 03/10/2025 14:22

Your friends sound a bit over-sensitive!

Show quote history

Agreed! My Mum is 92 and has a terminal illness which means she has very poor quality of life now, although (thank god) she has all her faculties still. She is ready to go, and my brother and I will be sad when the inevitable happens, but glad for her to be at peace. It's different if someone is a real outlier, like David Attenborough or Patricia Routledge. Not many people get to their 90s with all their faculties and a full life.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 03/10/2025 18:17

Only about a year ago we saw an ‘evening with PR’ in a theatre. She was so interesting and entertaining. Singing in musical theatre was her earlier career.

I once read that ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ was successfully sold to so many countries all over the world, since apparently every nationality and culture has its ‘Hyacinth Buckets’.

BookwormDadUK · 03/10/2025 18:26

CharlieKirkRIP · 03/10/2025 12:26

You must see Anybody’s nightmare, she was absolutely superb in that.

I hoped somebody would mention this! It was outstanding. The piano piece still makes me think of it.

FatLarrysBanned · 03/10/2025 18:37

This is sad to hear.

An absolutely amazing actress, who could convey more with the raise of an eyebrow and pursed lips than some of today's actors could with a 10 minute monologue.

RIP Dame Patricia. 💐

Fizbosshoes · 03/10/2025 19:06

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 03/10/2025 18:17

Only about a year ago we saw an ‘evening with PR’ in a theatre. She was so interesting and entertaining. Singing in musical theatre was her earlier career.

I once read that ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ was successfully sold to so many countries all over the world, since apparently every nationality and culture has its ‘Hyacinth Buckets’.

There cant be many people with the range of facial expressions she used for hyacinth, that was an extra layer of humour, on its own!

deeahgwitch · 03/10/2025 19:33

May Patricia rest in peace. She brought much joy in Nana’s house with the grandchildren watching if they were being babysat there. 💕

HermioneWeasley · 03/10/2025 19:36

Loved her as Kitty. I’ve watched them so many times.

Cheeseandquackers21 · 03/10/2025 20:24

Yes RIP Patricia. What a talented lady you were. Thanks for the laughs!

JustToBeMe · 03/10/2025 20:50

I love this program… it’s brilliant.

RIP Dame Patricia Routledge.

as an aside my DH calls my sister MrsBouquet😮🤔😉😬😆🤣

Myblueclematis · 03/10/2025 20:52

I wasn't a fan of Hyacinth but I still watch Hetty Wainthrop when it's on, I really liked her in that. RIP Patricia.

Calliopespa · 03/10/2025 20:57

Don't think I have seen any other character mentioned so often on MN as Hyacinth Bucket!🌷

napody · 03/10/2025 21:02

An absolute comedy genius. Hyacinth brought a ridiculous amount of joy. RIP.

SprayWhiteDung · 03/10/2025 22:35

Channel 5 just showed a documentary looking back at KUA, originally from 2023 - I just found it on YouTube too:

What really struck me was that KUA was Patricia's show, with even the more major supporting characters very much in her shadow... yet, she was so gracious and spoke so beautifully and sincerely about all of them and their huge talents that helped to make the show what it was.

She came across as such a wonderfully kind, humble lady - albeit one with nothing to be humble about. Even more of a credit to her amazing acting abilities - so utterly convincingly playing an obnoxious and unpleasant character with an appalling singing voice with whom she had nothing in common at all apart from that she physically looked like her!

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz-4zc98atA

BeanQuisine · 04/10/2025 05:27

SprayWhiteDung · 03/10/2025 18:02

Was it a little too close to home for your Mum?!

Show quote history

Probably, to some extent. My mum was a middle class lefty, but nonetheless put on airs and graces when it suited her.

Ritasueandbobtoo9 · 04/10/2025 05:37

I just remember watching the Alan Bennett thing and being very moved by it. I wish there were more programmes that used humour in the way that KUA. We seem to have lost the art of subtley.

LunaTheCat · 04/10/2025 06:12

Brilliant actress .. hopefully off to a wonderful candlelit supper in the sky.

Weightlo55 · 04/10/2025 07:37

I'd forgotten Dame Patricia had never married or had children. But just read she'd been a long time supporter of a children's hospice. Her final public photo was apparently taken there.

FudgeJudy · 04/10/2025 07:52

I loved her work with Victoria Wood. Just fabulous.

LlynTegid · 04/10/2025 07:55

scalt · 03/10/2025 15:30

"Tell God it's Bouquet!"

As a teenager, I remember finding the Keeping Up Appearances very predictable and ceasing to be funny because of this; also I found it hard to laugh about people who were too weak to refuse Hyacinth's invitations, like Elizabeth and Emmet and the vicar, because I used to be like that. However, that's hardly the fault of the great Patricia. We never did see a candlelight supper.

Although Routledge loved acting in the show, and said "the words just flew off the page", I read in a book about the making of Keeping Up Appearances that some of the scripts (written by Roy Clarke) were so unrealistic and impractical, that Routledge refused to act them at first, and Roy Clarke was notorious for never watching his own shows; so the director Harold Snoad re-wrote many of them, which caused a lot of arguments between Roy Clarke, Harold Snoad, and the BBC.

Interesting to read about the behind the scenes issues. Roy Clarke and implausible scripts does not surprise me given Last of the Summer Wine, a show which should have ended when Bill Owen died and was yet another example of the BBC not knowing when something has met the end of its shelf life.

Happyhettie · 04/10/2025 08:10

She is one of my heroes. I love keeping up appearances - her comic timing is impeccable. Hetty Wainthropp was brilliant too as was everything else she did.
The letter she wrote about getting older but grabbing life and opportunities is so inspiring.

What a week. First Jane Goodall and now Patricia Routledge. Both amazing women (in totally different ways!)

Cattenberg · 05/10/2025 22:14

I agree that Dame Patricia was a very talented actress who could be moving as well as funny. Also, I heard that she did almost all of her own stunts for Keeping Up Appearances, with the only exception being the horse-riding scenes.

Shortly before turning 95, she wrote a short, insightful piece about her life and what she learned as she grew older. I loved it, especially these words:

I’m writing this to tell you something simple: growing older is not the closing act. It can be the most exquisite chapter – if you let yourself bloom again.

Let these years ahead be your treasure years. You don’t need to be famous. You don’t need to be flawless. You only need to show up – fully – for the life that is still yours.

SprayWhiteDung · 06/10/2025 08:05

scalt · 03/10/2025 15:30

"Tell God it's Bouquet!"

As a teenager, I remember finding the Keeping Up Appearances very predictable and ceasing to be funny because of this; also I found it hard to laugh about people who were too weak to refuse Hyacinth's invitations, like Elizabeth and Emmet and the vicar, because I used to be like that. However, that's hardly the fault of the great Patricia. We never did see a candlelight supper.

Although Routledge loved acting in the show, and said "the words just flew off the page", I read in a book about the making of Keeping Up Appearances that some of the scripts (written by Roy Clarke) were so unrealistic and impractical, that Routledge refused to act them at first, and Roy Clarke was notorious for never watching his own shows; so the director Harold Snoad re-wrote many of them, which caused a lot of arguments between Roy Clarke, Harold Snoad, and the BBC.

Roy Clarke did always seem like a bit of a 'funny onion' - especially for a comedy writer. Raymond Allen, whi wrote Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, appeared to be similar.

Of course it's an art form and they don't have to be jolly all the time or actually live their writing in their own lives - if that were the case, Agatha Christie would have been a very tricky one!

However, I think there's a huge difference between doing your own part and then graciously handing it to others to do theirs; and just not seeming to be bothered at all what comes of your work as long as the money keeps on coming in.