Lady Patricia Routledge: The Life of TV's Magnificently Posh 'Mrs. Bucket'

Lady Pat Routledge, who passed away at the years of 96, etched her presence on the national psyche as the snobby Mrs. Bouquet.

Declaring it was "said Bouquet," the character trampled over her long-suffering husband and confused neighbours in the popular sitcom, among Britain's best-loved comedies in the 1990s.

Acting like a aristocrat while living in a suburb, Hyacinth's monstrous social-climbing plans were in the end destined to collapse—while she struggled to maintain her dignity.

It was Lady Routledge's best-known role in a career that included her win stage awards on each side of the Atlantic, emerge as the star of Alan Bennett's celebrated TV soliloquies, and become BBC1's crime-busting Hetty Wainthropp.

Formative Life and Career Beginnings

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

Her dad was a haberdasher and she remembered taking cover from German air raids in the basement of his store throughout the Second World War.

She majored in English at local the University of Liverpool and planned to become a teacher. Rather, she joined the local theatre before training at the Bristol drama school.

Her prosperous stage career took her from the regions to the London theatre district, and eventually to Broadway, where Leonard Bernstein chose her to star in his musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 1976.

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

She could move smoothly from lighthearted plays to serious drama.

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

There, her starring part in the stage musical Carousel involved her singing the inspiring You'll Never Walk Alone.

There were also several minor movie parts, notably in 1967's To Sir, With Love, and the Jerry Lewis funny film Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River.

Her theatre and broadcast performances proved her versatility and earned her accolades, but it was the small screen that gave Routledge with her best-known roles.

Television Breakthrough and Memorable Characters

Initial small-screen appearances included popular shows like Z Cars and Steptoe and Son.

And later, one of Britain's most respected writers, Alan Bennett, penned a set of remarkable Talking Heads TV monologues for her.

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

She later play a isolated, mid-life shop clerk drawn into a relationship with a unconventional foot doctor in Bennett's Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet.

A humorous performance as the larger-than-life Kitty on The Victoria Wood Show led to the development 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 opened the script for a while at one o'clock in the night," she recalled, "I went straight through and Hyacinth jumped off the page. I knew that lady, I'd met a few of that woman."

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

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

It turned into the broadcaster's most exported show of all time and ensured Routledge was recognised as distant as Africa.

For her performance on the sitcom, she was chosen Britain's all-time favourite actress in 1996, but following five years in the part, she felt it was the moment for a change.

"I decided to end it to an close," she said, "and, of course, the broadcaster didn’t care for very much."

She thought that the writer was starting to recycle ideas and recalled a piece of advice from the performer, Ronnie Barker.

"He made sure to finish with people asking, ‘Oh, won't you do any more?’ she said, instead of fans remarking, ‘Is that still running?’"

Later Roles and Private Reflections

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

Years after she ceased acting regularly on screen, Routledge undertook stage travels both in the UK and abroad.

Whenever interviewers posed the predictable question, she asked them to spell out the word withdrawal because, she explained: "It isn't in my vocabulary."

She did not wed or had children, but informed the press of two great affairs in her youth, one with a wedded man.

"I experienced remorse and an acute sense that there had to be loss," she confessed. "I suppose I persuaded myself that it was acceptable for the moment because his union was not a vibrant thing."

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

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

Challenging the Corporation's policy of resurrecting old comedies she said, "Why are they doing this sort of thing, they must be out of ideas."

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

On turning 90, she continued to live quietly in Chichester, where she busied herself collecting money for the church structure.

In 2017, she became a Dame of the Order of the British Empire but—unlike her character—titles never affect her head.

Dame Patricia often said she thanked her north of England upbringing and stable family for providing her good sense with her time and her finances.

Nonetheless, she admitted that, if any extra cash come her way, she'd definitely use it on "a case of sparkling wine"—an appreciation of the finer things in existence that she shared with her best-remembered character.

"I never was theatre-obsessed," she declared. "I'm not stage-struck today. Nobody's as amazed than I am that I've, in fact, devoted my life pursuing acting."