Lady Patricia Routledge: The Story of Television's Wonderfully Snobby 'Mrs. Bouquet'

Lady Patricia Routledge, who passed away at the years of 96, made her mark on the national consciousness as the snobby Mrs. Bucket.

Declaring it was "said Bouquet," Hyacinth ran roughshod over her patient husband and bewildered neighbours in the popular sitcom, one of Britain's best-loved sitcoms in the 1990s.

Acting like a aristocrat while living in a suburb, Bucket's over-the-top status-seeking plans were in the end doomed to collapse—while she battled to maintain her dignity.

It was Lady Patricia's best-known part in a professional life that saw her earn theatrical awards on both sides of the Atlantic, emerge as the star of Alan Bennett's celebrated TV soliloquies, and star as BBC1's investigative Hetty Wainthropp.

Formative Life and Career Beginnings

Katherine Pat Routledge was delivered in Merseyside on February 17 1929.

Her dad was a clothier and she later recalled taking cover from German air raids in the cellar of his shop during the Second World War.

She studied English at local the University of Liverpool and intended to become a teacher. Instead, she joined the local theatre before studying at the Bristol drama school.

Her prosperous acting career brought her from the provinces to the West End, and finally to New York, where Leonard Bernstein selected her to appear in his musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 1976.

She had previously received a Tony award for her acting in Darling of the Day.

She could move effortlessly from lighthearted plays to classics.

She went from Shakespeare's birthplace, performing with the RSC and later to the London's national stage in the capital.

There, her lead part in the stage musical Carousel involved her performing the rousing You'll Never Walk Alone.

She also took various minor film roles, notably in the 1967 film To Sir, With Love, and the Jerry Lewis comedy outing Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River.

Her theatre and broadcast performances demonstrated her range and earned her awards, but it was television that provided Routledge with her most high profile characters.

TV Breakthrough and Iconic Roles

Initial television work included popular programmes like Z Cars and Steptoe and Son.

Subsequently, among Britain's esteemed playwrights, the dramatist, wrote a set of outstanding Talking Heads TV solos for her.

Routledge conquered her early reluctance to act his material and shone as A Woman of No Importance and A Lady of Letters.

She later play a lonely, mid-life shop clerk tipped into a affair with a unconventional podiatrist in Bennett's Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet.

A humorous performance as the larger-than-life Kitty on The Victoria Wood Show resulted in the creation of Mrs. Bouquet.

Routledge remembered being sent the scripts by the writer, the screenwriter—who had also done Last of the Summer Wine and Open All Hours.

"I had opened the script for a while at 1 a.m. in the morning," she said, "I went straight through and Hyacinth jumped off the script. I knew that woman, I knew several of that woman."

Keeping Up Appearances aired for five series and featured several Christmas episodes.

In a film, she later claimed that fans had included the royal family and the pontiff.

It turned into BBC Worldwide's most exported show of all time and meant Routledge was recognised as far away as Africa.

For her work on the sitcom, she was chosen Britain's all-time favourite actress in 1996, but following half a decade in the role, she felt it was time for a new direction.

"I decided to end it to an close," she said, "which, of course, the broadcaster wasn't pleased with very much."

She thought that Roy Clarke was beginning to repeat concepts and mentioned a bit of guidance from the performer, the comic.

"He made sure to finish with audiences saying, ‘Oh, aren’t you doing any more?’ she said, rather than people saying, ‘Is that still running?’"

Subsequent Work and Personal Life

Playing the unassuming but astute detective in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates brought her continued popularity on TV, but she always referred to the theatre as "the real challenge."

Long after she stopped appearing regularly on television, Routledge undertook theatre tours both in the United Kingdom and abroad.

Whenever interviewers asked the predictable inquiry, she asked them to write the word retirement since, she explained: "It isn't in my lexicon."

She never wed or raised children, but informed interviewers of a couple of significant affairs in her younger days, one with a wedded man.

"I felt guilt and an acute sense that there had to be loss," she admitted. "I guess I persuaded myself that it was acceptable for the time being as his union was no a vibrant thing."

Instead, she dedicated herself to her art, honoring it with the talent, dedication and devotion that were always respected by her colleagues.

She was scathing about the broadcaster's choice in 2016 to bring back Keeping Up Appearances, but this time placed in the 1950s and starring a younger version of her role.

Challenging the Corporation's approach of resurrecting classic sitcoms she said, "Why are they attempting this sort of project, they must be out of ideas."

She had already clashed with the broadcaster over their decision not to commission a film she had written about the author Beatrix Potter (Routledge was a Patron of the Beatrix Potter Society), which eventually broadcast on Channel 4.

Upon reaching 90, she continued to live quietly in the city, where she occupied herself collecting money for the cathedral structure.

In 2017, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the British honors system but—in contrast to Hyacinth—titles did not affect her head.

Dame Patricia always stated she thanked her Northern upbringing and stable background for giving her good sense with her life and her money.

Even so, she admitted that, if any extra money arrive, she'd certainly use it on "a case of sparkling wine"—an love of the finer things in life that she shared with her best-remembered creation.

"I was never stage-struck," she said. "I am not stage-struck today. No one is as amazed than myself that I've, in fact, spent my career doing acting."