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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Keeping up Appearances

156 replies

AriesTheRam · 09/12/2020 09:05

Aibu to say that Richard should have been with Elizabeth in the end?
I'm starting all the series from the beginning and they are much more suited.

I may be slightly over invested!

OP posts:

Celandines · 09/12/2020 11:19

There's a conversation Richard has with the vicar in one of the episodes where the vicar is asking how he puts up with her and Richard explains that "she's actually very kind"

kwiksavenofrillsusername · 09/12/2020 11:20

@Dongdingdong

Hyacinth would definitely be a regular poster on Mumsnet if she was a real person.

Definitely! She'd love all the random threads about things that are 'common' according to MN.

I have a certain family member who is a total Hyacinth. Sadly, they have not invited me to riparian entertainments, or an indoor outdoor luxury barbecue with finger buffet. Perhaps I wouldn't impress the vicar.

Ugzbugz · 09/12/2020 11:20

I love this show, ger facial expressions are amazing!

apostropheuse · 09/12/2020 11:23

I loved it years ago when it was first aired, and still love it now.

I always feel so sorry for Hyacinth as she adores Sheridan, who never visits. You can see Richard gets annoyed at Sheridan as he really does love Hyacinth, despite her airs and graces.

FetchezLaVache · 09/12/2020 11:24

@TwentyViginti my DP had a night drinking with Geoffrey Hughes in the local village pub years ago when he was filming Heartbeat! It remains one of the best nights of DP's life.

Biddums · 09/12/2020 11:26

I love this show as well.

However it pissed me off back in the early 90s and still does that people always go on about how Hyacinth treated Richard but no one goes on about how shit Onslow treated Daisy.

I mean Daisy was in a sexless marriage and treated like a cook, cleaner and skivvy. But noooo it's always about how poor Richard was treated, even though he was looked after and clearly loved. Hyacinth always wants to see him happy and includes him in her silly plans.

Meanwhile Onslow is always trying to get rid of Daisy and rejecting her. It even came out in one episode that he was cheating on her when they first started dating.

Yes I do love all of the characters and yes it's just a TV show but there!! That's my little rant over it lol.

HopefulButScared · 09/12/2020 11:30

@Dongdingdong

Hyacinth would definitely be a regular poster on Mumsnet if she was a real person.

I can confirm she is a real person, her brother wrote Hyacinth based on her. I had the misfortune as a child of being related to them by marriage for a while. It's a pretty accurate representation...

Grenlei · 09/12/2020 11:38

Agree that Daisy/ Onslow dynamic is far more unpleasant than Hyacinth/ Richard. Daisy would definitely get told to LTB if she posted on here!

As an aside did anyone else know that Clive Swift (Richard) was married to Margaret Drabble? Or that his brother was Henry in Drop the Dead Donkey? (one of my favourite sitcoms of the 90s!)

hansgrueber · 09/12/2020 11:40

I was amazed that Shirley Stelfox who played the battle-axe Edna Birch in Emmerdale also played Rose in KUA!

purpleme12 · 09/12/2020 11:47

@hansgrueber

I was amazed that Shirley Stelfox who played the battle-axe Edna Birch in Emmerdale also played Rose in KUA!

Oh my god I didn't know this!

SwimmingOnEggshells · 09/12/2020 11:55

I hadn't watched it in years and watched an episode a couple of weeks ago - it's brilliant. So many people like her in real life!

Horizons83 · 09/12/2020 12:01

@iwantmyownicecreamvan

Here you go:

uktvplay.uktv.co.uk/shows/keeping-up-appearances/watch-online

iwantmyownicecreamvan · 09/12/2020 12:14

Thanks @Horisons83 - sorry my post wasn't clear - I was looking for the prequel.

HerBigChance · 09/12/2020 12:19

Superb series - must give it a rewatch.

I love Patricia Routledge. She played the author Barbara Pym (who I'm also a great fan of) in a drama that was on YouTube, not sure if it still is. And there's also the wonderful Kitty character in Victoria Wood.

AttilaTheMeerkat · 09/12/2020 12:28

Love KUA.

I was once in a bookstore in the US and a woman heard my British accent. Somehow from this she went onto ask me about KUA because she had viewed this on BBC America. We had a good chat about the characters and some episodes.

Nonamesavail · 09/12/2020 12:36

My late Grandma (we were not allowed to call her Nan) was just like her. So much so. Its funny because now I am older I understand her more and I wish so much I could speak to her now rather than with the judgement of my mum (who never got on with her)

SchadenfreudePersonified · 09/12/2020 12:46

I always felt that there was a wistfulness about Richard and Elizabeth's relationship that suggested that they would have loved the opportunity to be together - but neither of them would betray their spouses (It was sort of a suburban "Brief Encounter".

Richard would only have ended up with Elizabeth if Hyacinth had fallen under a bus, and Liz's husband ran away with someone he'd met on an oil rig or something.

But yes - I agree they would have been very happy together, and would probably have got a nice little dog (I see them with a Cavalier King Charles (which means that there would have been nothing to laugh at)

It is, in many ways, a story of unrequited love - and all the more romantic for it (alas!).

SchadenfreudePersonified · 09/12/2020 12:50

As an aside, Patricia Routledge is incredibly gifted. Don’t know whether anyone else has seen her in Alan Bennett’s monologue ‘Lady of Letters’ - the one who sits in her window watching the neighbours and writing nasty letters - it’s a classic of a very different type IMO.

I so agree - she also did "Miss Fozzard finds her Feet" - so much better than the re-make (which was good, but just not as good as Ptricia Routledge")

SchadenfreudePersonified · 09/12/2020 12:55

@unmarkedbythat

Richard and Elizabeth were at it like knives, come on

Pashazade · 09/12/2020 12:56

As an aside there is also a series (was on Woman's Hour and I seem to recall an ITV dramatisation at some point) called Ladies of Letters with Patricia Routledge and Prunella Scales, they meet at a wedding, both are widows and they become pen pals. It's quite superb.

CustardySergeant · 09/12/2020 12:58

TwentyViginti "Onslow was my secret crush"

WHAAAAAT? You can't be serious! What on earth did you see in him?

SchadenfreudePersonified · 09/12/2020 12:59

As an aside did anyone else know that Clive Swift (Richard) was married to Margaret Drabble?

I knew this as I had SUCH a crush on him 50 years ago . . .

HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN MINE!

sueelleker · 09/12/2020 13:02

I sometimes think how awful it would be to live between Hyacinth and Victor Meldrew!

SchadenfreudePersonified · 09/12/2020 13:04

@HerBigChance

Superb series - must give it a rewatch.

Oooh - I'll see if I can find the Barbara Pym thing. She is one of my favourite authors - I have all of her books (except "And The Sweet Dove Died" - I couldn't get it for love nor money, but this thread has prompted me to go on Amazon - and there are now copies available! I'm now in a moral quandary, because I REALLY REALLY disapprove of Jeff Bezos . . . )

AdoptedBumpkin · 09/12/2020 13:04

I've never thought of this but I can see where you are coming from. I still like KUA even though it feels very dated.

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