British actress Patricia Routledge (Keeping Up Appearances) died on Oct. 3. She was 96. Routledge appeared onstage both on the West End and Broadway (where she won a 1968 Tony for Darling of the Day). In the movies and on TV, she appeared in Coronation Street, Z-Cars, To Sir with Love, A Matter of Innocence, The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom, Lock Up Your Daughters!, Sense and Sensibility, Steptoe and Son, Nicholas Nickleby, Crown Court, The Beggar’s Opera, and Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (starring as a kind of British Jessica Fletcher—yes, I know Angela Lansbury was British!). But Routledge’s most famous role (from 1990-95) was as bumptious social climber Hyacinth Bucket (“it’s pronounced ‘Bouquet’”) on Keeping Up Appearances. Of this role, Routledge said, “The basic premise of Hyacinth is pretension and that's the source of so much comedy. While attempting to be a social climber, she also had to deal with members from the other side of her family like Onslow, who sat around in his string vest drinking beer. In a way, the show was a microcosm for society.”
