Keeping Up Appearances: Trailer, certificate and where to watch
The great social-climbing comedy, starring the late Patricia Routledge
Year: 1990-1995
Certificate: pg
Roy Clarke has written some of our best-loved TV comedies, including Last Of The Summer Wine and Open All Hours. He was also behind Keeping Up Appearances, the excruciatingly well-performed BBC sitcom about a middle-class social climber.
The late Patricia Routledge stars as Hyacinth Bucket - pronounced Bouquet, at least by her - a woman desperate to leave evidence of her working-class roots behind, but whose undesirable relatives are never too far away.
The very first episode opens with Hyacinth's hapless 'Daddy' causing problems in hospital, while her sister Daisy - and Daisy's feckless husband, Onslow - think little of embarrassing Hyacinth, a woman whose shrill, middle-class exterior barely conceals her terror of being unmasked. Bearing the brunt of that stress is husband Richard (Clive Swift).
Clarke later wrote a prequel, Young Hyacinth (starring Kerry Howard), that fleshed out the character's roots to neat effect. (Five series)
