🔗 Share this article

Dame Pat Routledge, who has died at the age of 96, etched her presence on the British psyche as the snobby Hyacinth Bouquet.

Insisting it was "pronounced Bouquet," the character trampled over her long-suffering husband and confused neighbours in the popular sitcom, one of Britain's most successful comedies in the 1990s.

Acting like a aristocrat while residing in a suburb, Bucket's monstrous social-climbing schemes were ultimately destined to failure—while she battled to maintain her composure.

It was Dame Routledge's most famous role in a career that included her earn theatrical awards on both sides of the ocean, emerge as the lead of the playwright's celebrated TV monologues, and star as BBC1's investigative Mrs. Wainthropp.

Early Life and Career Beginnings

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

Her father was a clothier and she later recalled sheltering from enemy bombs in the basement of his store throughout the Second World War.

She majored in literature at nearby the University of Liverpool and planned to become a teacher. Instead, she joined the Liverpool Playhouse before training at the Bristol drama school.

Her successful acting journey brought her from the regions to the London theatre district, and finally to Broadway, where the composer chose her to star in his stage production 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 1976.

She had previously won a Tony honor for her acting in Darling of the Day.

She could transition smoothly from comedies to classics.

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

There, her starring part in the theatre production Carousel involved her singing the rousing You'll Never Walk Alone.

There were also several supporting film roles, notably in 1967's To Sir, With Love, and the Jerry Lewis comedy outing Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River.

Her theatre and broadcast performances proved her range and won her accolades, but it was the small screen that provided Routledge with her most high profile roles.

TV Breakthrough and Memorable Roles

Initial small-screen work featured popular programmes like Z Cars and Steptoe and Son.

Subsequently, among Britain's esteemed writers, Alan Bennett, penned a set of remarkable Talking Heads TV solos for her.

Routledge conquered her initial hesitation to perform his scripts and shone as A Woman of No Importance and A Lady of Letters.

She went onto play a lonely, mid-life department store assistant tipped into a affair with a unconventional foot doctor in Bennett's Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet.

A comic turn as the exaggerated Kitty on The Victoria Wood Show led to the development of Mrs. Bouquet.

Routledge recalled being given the episodes by the writer, Roy Clarke—known for Last of the Summer Wine and Open All Hours.

"I opened the pages for a moment at 1 a.m. in the morning," she recalled, "I went straight through and Hyacinth leapt off the page. I knew that lady, I knew several of that type."

Keeping Up Appearances ran for five seasons and included several Christmas specials.

In a documentary, she stated that fans had included the royal family and Pope Benedict XVI.

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

For her work on the comedy, she was chosen Britain's all-time favourite actress in 1996, but after half a decade in the part, she decided it was the moment for a new direction.

"I decided to end it to an end," she said, "and, of course, the BBC wasn't pleased with at all."

She thought that the writer was starting to repeat concepts and mentioned a bit of advice from the performer, the comic.

"He always left with people saying, ‘Oh, aren’t you doing any more?’ she said, rather than people remarking, ‘Is that still running?’"

Subsequent Work and Personal Life

Playing the unassuming but astute sleuth in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates gave her continued popularity on television, but she consistently called the theatre as "the test."

Long after she stopped acting regularly on screen, Routledge undertook theatre tours equally in the United Kingdom and overseas.

Whenever interviewers posed the predictable question, she requested them to write the word withdrawal since, she explained: "It isn't in my lexicon."

She never married or raised children, but told interviewers of a couple of significant affairs in her youth, one with a wedded man.

"I felt remorse and an sharp feeling that there would be loss," she admitted. "I guess I convinced myself that it was all right for the moment as his marriage was not a living relationship."

In place of family, she devoted herself to her craft, honoring it with the skill, discipline and commitment that were always admired by her colleagues.

She was critical about the BBC's choice in 2016 to revive Keeping Up Appearances, but on this occasion set in the 1950s and featuring a more youthful version of her role.

Questioning the Corporation's policy of resurrecting classic sitcoms she remarked, "For what reason are they attempting this kind of thing, they have to be desperate."

She had already disagreed with the BBC over their decision not to commission a documentary she had authored about the writer Beatrix Potter (Routledge was a Patron of the literary group), which eventually aired on Channel 4.

On turning 90, she persisted to reside peacefully in Chichester, where she busied herself collecting money for the cathedral structure.

In 2017, she became a Dame Commander of the British honors system but—unlike Hyacinth—honors never affect her head.

Lady Patricia often stated she thanked her Northern upbringing and stable family for providing her practicality with her time and her finances.

Nonetheless, she admitted that, if any extra money come her way, she'd certainly use it on "a case of sparkling wine"—an appreciation of the finer pleasures in life that she had in common with her most famous creation.

"I never was stage-struck," she declared. "I am not theatre-obsessed now. Nobody's as amazed than myself that I have, actually, spent my life pursuing this."