To think hyacinth bucket's neighbour was actually a complete cow?

[koopspooks]

Topical I know. Someone just shared a clip on fb and it made me feel quite depressed, hyacinth was clearly insecure and her husband was such a pathetic disloyal old drip. And yeah the neighbour was a knob, and don’t get me started on her loser nephew.

When I watched it at 16 I was like HAHA YEAH LOL AT HYACINTH but now I want to give her a hug.

Oh, OFITG could be strange. The final episode - did Victor's wife kill off the woman who was responsible for Victor's death?
I'm going to have to watch some of these again.

Emmett was Elizabeth's brother??!! I thought they were husband & wife!

Yonihuman it was called "Young Hyacinth" and was a one off on the BBC

RISING DUMP. Forget the 'tripe' on telly nowadays. That was comedy.
The timing, absolutely spot on

Emmett was Elizabeth's brother??!! I thought they were husband & wife!

Yep, definitely brother.

YANBU

All comedy employs cliches and stereotypes..... Grumpy old men, stupid drunk young men, snobby older women, have-it-all younger women ec but the biggest ones in the 90's went too far imo.

We all know a Hyacinth and a Victor and a Tony or Gary and a Dorothy or Deborah but htere is a line that crosses from ribbing into nastiness.

My BF's mother was a Hyacinth. Low born (in her eyes) father did well financially but via Welsh valleys manual labour (she changed her accent), she married well to a PhD who became a director of a well known company but she was always "what will people think?" She didnt cry, and berated her sister for crying, at her fathers funeral. I always felt quite sad for her because she was never relaxed or secure in herself or her social position. Very much a Margot in terms of supporting her husbands career but a Hyacinth in terms of the fear of being found out.

Patricia Routledge is an absolutely fantastic actress. She made that programme. I have the DVD box set and love it!

I love some of these tv comedies as little time capsules of a certain era, not just in fashions and styles but attitudes.

www.facebook.com/BritishComedy/videos/1964424713774824/

That’s the video. Apologies on the emmet nephew/brother mix up.

Class is a potent British subject.

Patricia Routledge was fantastic casting. Her facial expressions are priceless.

Patricia Routledge is seriously underrated- she absolutely carried that show.

I adored that show. Reminds me of my auntie!

Oh, OFITG could be strange. The final episode - did Victor's wife kill off the woman who was responsible for Victor's death?

What the hell???!

I remember one episode which was basically all about whether the wife had thrown herself in the river or not. Then she came home, all subdued and quiet. I was like, this is meant to be a comedy?? I couldn't understand why people roared laughing at it. It was pretty fucked up.

OFITG had lots of black comedy moments.

I think there was a lot of pathos in OFITG.

Off to look for young hyscinth

I find it very difficult to watch. My mother was a Hyacinth, she probably still is (and lives in the very area where most of KUA was filmed). My Dad married her because she was fun and he loved her and she married him because her big sister had just married and she thought she would end up "on the shelf".

Her family came from a working class bit of Camden and her brothers and sisters ended up as "The one with the tennis court", "the one who died from TB", "the artistic one who still lives with his mother" and "the one who married beneath her and lives in Hayes (the horror!)".

My mother was painfully aware of what she thought the neighbours thought to the point where she didn't care about her family, except as props for her middle-class life. If we fell short of her expectations she made our lives a misery.

My Father unsurprising left, so I see Richard as a bit of a saint as he's clearly fond of Hyacinth and stays with her.

Ironically, the neighbours were more worried about me than the state of my Mother's net curtains, and very kindly provided me with a refuge form her when I couldn't cope.

KUA is a perfect portrait of that sort of family, except that for the sake of comedy, Hyacinth's family are mostly tolerant. She is ridiculous, in fact, she's a monster: she is completely blind to her faults, and she gets to keep her friends and family when I know, that in reality they'd all be NC with her by now.

I'm not sure why you think Elizabeth is a cow!

I once found a bunch of flowers in Aldi labelled Hyacinth Bouquet. I had to buy them!

Although the programme had some great moments (Mrs Fortescue, the QE2, the horse riding), and Patricia Routledge was fantastic, I found it really difficult to watch, I don't find it funny when "weak" characters are bullied and exploited. The show had many of them: Richard, Elizabeth, Emmet, the vicar, the postman. Richard would frequently be blamed for Hyacinth's misfortune. "I'll explain to the captain of the QE2 that it wasn't my fault. It was more yours, dear, for getting stuck in that field."

It also became very predictable. "Rrrrrrichard, they're having trouble with the electrics at the church!" I then knew exactly what was going to happen.

I too was thinking of that episode with the sister (was it Violet?) throwing herself in the river. We hear her husband saying "answer me when I'm yelling at you!!" I think we were spared a sage line from Hyacinth "she should know her place", it's the sort of thing she would have said, despite ruling the roost in her own home.

I was amused to read a book by Harold Snoad (producer and director) about the making of the show: there were loads of disagreements between him and the scriptwriter, who rarely watched his own shows, and kept writing scripts which were impossibly unrealistic, to the extent that Patricia Routledge refused to act them. Harold Snoad ended up rewriting a lot of the episodes himself, just to make them work.

I always remember a scene from OFITG where they'd gone to visit friends, and the husband showed them the wife hanging outside the window or something like that. Very black comedy at times. Also very sad moments , wasn't there an episode where they alluded to a son who'd passed away in infancy?

However - I still laugh out loud at the episode where they're stuck in a car and inadvertently end up listening to a fantastic song Victor's car mechanics have recorded for ... 'there's a bloke we can't stand any longer...'

Never did like Hyacinth much. Her sisters made me cringe - I was quite young when my mum used to watch it. Love Patricia Routledge and she reminds me in many ways of my wonderful granny, but never found the programme all that funny.

My mum used to get me to watch all sorts of comedy on a Sunday night though - still adore Last of the Summer Wine, Dear John ('life goes on') and Bottom/ The Young Ones... all of which I was introduced to at around age 12!

Mind you Last o SW must have been much earlier, I think probably 7 or so.. we used to watch it after a Sunday roast. I still want to visit the area one day.

Not there was an episode of IFITG set in a waiting room, they obliquely discussed their lost child and the life they could have had - it was very moving, like so much if this kind of thing once you get past the surface. The best sort of British comedy.

Hyacinth had the hide of a rhino. She was completely lacking in self-awareness and was impossible to offend genuinely, which made KUA funny.