🔗 Share this article

Lady Patricia Routledge, who passed away at the age of 96, made her mark on the national psyche as the pretentious Hyacinth Bouquet.

Declaring it was "said Bouquet," the character ran roughshod over her patient husband and bewildered neighbours in Keeping Up Appearances, among Britain's best-loved sitcoms in the 1990s.

Acting like a duchess while residing in a suburb, Hyacinth's over-the-top social-climbing schemes were ultimately destined to failure—while she struggled to maintain her composure.

It was Dame Routledge's best-known role in a career that saw her win stage awards on both sides of the Atlantic, emerge as the lead of the playwright's famous TV soliloquies, and star as BBC1's crime-busting Hetty Wainthropp.

Formative Years and Start in Acting

Catherine Patricia Routledge was delivered in Merseyside on February 17 1929.

Her dad was a haberdasher and she remembered sheltering from German bombs in the cellar of his store during the war.

She studied literature at nearby the University of Liverpool and planned to teach. Instead, she entered the Liverpool Playhouse prior to studying at the Bristol drama school.

Her prosperous acting journey took her from the regions to the West End, and finally to New York, where Leonard Bernstein chose her to star in his stage production 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 comedies to classics.

She went from Stratford-upon-Avon, appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company and then to the London's national stage in the capital.

There, her starring role in the stage musical Carousel featured her performing the inspiring You'll Never Walk Alone.

She also took various minor film roles, especially in the 1967 film To Sir, With Love, and the comedian's funny film Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River.

Her theatre and broadcast work proved her range and won her accolades, but it was television that provided Routledge with her best-known characters.

Television Breakthrough and Iconic Characters

Early small-screen appearances included well-liked programmes like Z Cars and Steptoe and Son.

And later, among Britain's esteemed playwrights, the dramatist, penned a series of remarkable Talking Heads TV solos for her.

Routledge overcame her early reluctance to perform his scripts and excelled as A Woman of No Importance and A Lady of Letters.

She went onto play a isolated, middle-aged department store assistant drawn into a relationship with a kinky foot doctor in Bennett's Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet.

A humorous turn as the larger-than-life Kitty on The Victoria Wood Show led to the creation of Mrs. Bucket.

Routledge recalled being sent 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 while at one o'clock in the night," she said, "I went straight through and the character jumped off the script. I knew that lady, I'd met several of that woman."

Keeping Up Appearances ran for five seasons and featured four holiday specials.

In a documentary, she stated that admirers had numbered Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and the pontiff.

It became the broadcaster's most exported show of all time and ensured Routledge was known as distant as Botswana.

For her performance on the sitcom, she was voted Britain's all-time favourite actor in 1996, but following five years in the role, 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 very much."

She thought that Roy Clarke was starting to recycle ideas and mentioned a bit of advice from the performer, Ronnie Barker.

"He always left with people asking, ‘Oh, won't you do any more?’ she recalled, instead of people remarking, ‘Is that still running?’"

Later Roles and Private Life

Playing the unassuming but astute detective in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates brought her continued success on television, but she always called the stage as "the test."

Long after she stopped acting regularly on television, Routledge undertook stage travels both in the UK and abroad.

If journalists asked the predictable question, she requested them to write the word withdrawal because, she explained: "It's not in my lexicon."

She did not wed or raised children, but informed interviewers of two great affairs in her youth, one with a married man.

"I felt guilt and an acute feeling that there would be pain," she confessed. "I suppose I persuaded myself that it was acceptable for the time being as his union was not a living thing."

Instead, she dedicated herself to her art, honoring it with the talent, dedication and devotion that were consistently admired by her peers.

She was critical about the BBC's decision in 2016 to bring back Keeping Up Appearances, but this time placed in the 1950s and featuring a younger version of her character.

Questioning the network's policy of resurrecting classic comedies she said, "Why are they doing this sort of project, they have to be out of ideas."

She had previously disagreed with the broadcaster over its decision to not commission a documentary she had authored about the writer Beatrix Potter (she 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 church structure.

In 2017, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire but—in contrast to her character—titles did not go to her mind.

Lady Patricia always stated she credited her north of England upbringing and solid family for giving her good sense with her life and her finances.

Even so, she admitted that, if any extra money come her way, she'd definitely spend it on "a case of champagne"—an love of the finer pleasures in life that she had in common with her most famous character.

"I never was theatre-obsessed," she said. "I'm not stage-struck now. Nobody's more surprised than I am that I've, actually, devoted my life doing this."