Keeping Up Appearances
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| Keeping Up Appearances | |
|---|---|
 Keeping Up Appearances opening credits |
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| Genre | Sitcom |
| Creator(s) | Roy Clarke |
| Starring | Patricia Routledge Clive Swift David Griffin Josephine Tewson Geoffrey Hughes Judy Cornwell Shirley Stelfox Mary Millar |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 44 + 1 short (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 42x30 minutes 1x50 minutes 1x60 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC1 |
| Original run | 29 October 1990 – 25 December 1995 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
Keeping Up Appearances was a British sitcom starring Patricia Routledge as social snob Hyacinth Bucket. It aired on BBC1 from 1990 to 1995. Keeping Up Appearances was written by Roy Clarke, who also wrote Last of the Summer Wine and Open All Hours. In 2004, it came 12th in Britain's Best Sitcom.
Contents |
[edit] Cast
- Patricia Routledge - Hyacinth Bucket
- Clive Swift - Richard Bucket
- Judy Cornwell - Daisy
- Geoffrey Hughes - Onslow
- Shirley Stelfox - Rose (series 1)
- Mary Millar - Rose (from series 2)
- Josephine Tewson - Elizabeth Warden
- David Griffin - Emmet Hawksworth (from series 2)
- George Webb - "Daddy"
- Anna Dawson - Violet (series 5)
- John Evitts - Bruce (series 5)
- Jeremy Gittins - Michael, the Vicar
- Marion Barron - Vicar's wife
- Peter Cellier - The Major (series 1 and 2)
- David Janson - Michael, the Postman
[edit] Plot
Hyacinth Bucket, who always insists that her name is pronounced Bouquet, is a social-climbing snob who spends much of her time trying to impress her friends and neighbours, including the unseen Mrs. Barker-Finch at Number 23. Hyacinth is a suburban housewife who lives in a bungalow in Blossom Avenue. She is very houseproud, often warns people not to brush against her walls and tells them to take their shoes off at the door. Hyacinth does this by pretending to be of a more "aristocratic" class, and frequently holds dinner parties, which everyone dreads, and doing community work such as organising church events. Whenever the telephone rings, Hyacinth will answer it with "The Bouquet Residence, the lady of the house speaking". Hyacinth's long-suffering and henpecked husband Richard works for the local council. He later is forced to take early retirement much against his will. He often tries in vain to stop Hyacinth, but Hyacinth never listens to anyone, including her husband. While Richard always drives, she is constantly warning him of oncoming hazards on the road. They have a son Sheridan, who is never seen but makes frequent telephone calls from University asking for money. Although Hyacinth seems unaware, there are strong suggestions that Sheridan is gay.
Hyacinth's next door neighbor is Elizabeth Warden, a nervous middle-aged housewife whose husband is away working in Saudi Arabia. As Hyacinth's next door neighbor, she is invited for coffee almost every morning and is unable to say no. She often drops her cup and spills the coffee, often when the phone rings or when Hyacinth says something. If one of Hyacinth's sisters rings while Elizabeth is round, Hyacinth will always mention the fact her sister Violet has a Mercedes, sauna and "room for a pony", either by shouting "It's my sister Violet! You know, the one with the Mercedes, sauna, and room for a pony" or "It's my sister Daisy/Rose, she's not the one with the Mercedes, sauna, and there's no room for a pony". If the phone call is about something embarrassing, Hyacinth will quickly get rid of any guests. Elizabeth's musician brother Emmet Hawkesworth moves in with his sister after a messy divorce. The fact he is a musician means that Hyacinth takes every opportunity to impress him by singing, and he soon tries to avoid her so much that he barely leaves the house, something Hyacinth puts down to Emmet being attracted to her.
Hyacinth has three sisters, Daisy, Rose and Violet. Daisy is married to Onslow and they live with Rose and their father in a rundown three-bedroom house on a council estate. None of the three have ever worked, and Daisy and Onslow, who have a daughter Stephanie, spend most of the time either sitting in the sitting room, with him watching television drinking beer and eating potato crisps, while she reads romance novels, or in bed. Daisy is always trying to get Onslow to make love to her, but he always shows a reluctance to do so. They have an abandoned car in their front garden, which their dog, who always barks at Hyacinth, lives in. The promiscuous Rose spends most of her time with men, who are usually married. Rose's relationships never last long and she flirts with nearly every man she sees, including Emmet and the Vicar. Their senile father, referred to as "Daddy", frequently thinks the war is still on and occasionally goes missing, or chases after elderly women. Hyacinth frequently comes out with many excuses as to why Daddy can not live with her. All four frequently cause Hyacinth problems, and much embarrassment, as she hates Onslow. She goes to much effort to pretend she does not know them in public, although Elizabeth, Emmet and the Vicar seem to like Daisy, Onslow and Rose more than they do Hyacinth. Hyacinth's other sister Violet is married to turf accountant Bruce, and they live in a large house with the aforementioned Mercedes, sauna and room for a pony. Hyacinth is very proud of them and their house, and uses them to show off as much as possible. However, Violet and Bruce are constantly arguing and Violet frequently calls Hyacinth when she has a problem. Bruce also appears to be a part-time cross-dresser.
Other characters include Michael, Hyacinth and Richard's local parish vicar, and his unnamed, extremely jealous wife. The vicar, like Emmet, is terrified of Hyacinth and often hides from her, frequently leaving his wife to deal with her. The postman, also called Michael, is terrified of Hyacinth, who always comes out to speak to him when he delivers her post and attempts to be as quiet as possible when doing so. Hyacinth and Richard's friend, Major Wilton Smythe, likes Hyacinth and always heavily flirts with her.
[edit] Filming locations
Exterior shots around Hyacinth's house were filmed in Binley Woods village near Coventry. Exterior shots around Daisy and Onslow's council house were filmed in Stoke Aldermoor in Coventry. Other exterior street and town shots were filmed in Leamington Spa and in various towns throughout Warwickshire, along with many memorable scenes from the large town of Northampton.
[edit] Episodes
Keeping Up Appearances aired for five series, four Christmas specials and one short Children in Need special from 29 October 1990 to 25 December 1995. The series ended after the episode The Pageant because Patricia Routledge wanted to focus on other work. The other actors and writers are thought to have wanted to do more episodes, and a sixth series had been written.[citation needed]
[edit] After Keeping Up Appearances
In March 1997, Geoffrey Hughes and Judy Cornwell reprised their roles as Onslow and Daisy for a special compilation episode filmed for broadcast in the United States. The Memoirs of Hyacinth Bucket saw the pair introduce classic clips from the series.
In 1998, the BBC released three episodes of the show: A Job For Richard, Country Retreat and Sea Fever on audio cassette, and Clive Swift reprised his role as Richard, recording a narrative to compensate for the lack of images. And in 2004, the documentary series Comedy Connections featured an episode dedicated to Keeping Up Appearances. Stars Clive Swift, Josephine Tewson, Judy Cornwell and David Griffin, writer Roy Clarke and producer/director Harold Snoad all discussed the series. Clips from an interview with Patricia Routledge from 2002 were also included. Interestingly, this show revealed that there were serious artistic differences between Clarke and Snoad.
Two cast members died within two months of each other in 1998, Mary Millar, who played Rose from 1991-1995, on 10 November 1998 of ovarian cancer and George Webb, who played Daddy throughout the show's run, on 30 December 1998 of natural causes. Charmian May who appeared as Mrs. Councillor Nugent recurringly earlier in the series died on 24 October 2002.
[edit] Other countries
Keeping Up Appearances airs regularly on PBS stations and BBC America in the United States. In Australia, it airs on Seven and ABC. It airs regularly on Sweden's TV4 Plus under the title Skenet bedrar, in Norway on TV Norge, in Poland on TVP 2, and in Israel (via BBC Prime) under the title Ma Yagidu Haschenim? (What Will The Neighbors Say?). It aired in Netherlands as part of the TROS programming with the name Schone Schijn, often being rerun. It also aired on YTV in Canada. In Malaysia, it currently airs on BBC Entertainment.
[edit] Remakes
A highly successful sitcom on PTV, state owned tv channel in Pakistan, Family Front is based on it[citation needed].
[edit] DVD releases
[edit] Region 1 NTSC
In Region 1, the complete series 1 to 5 and the specials were released in a boxed set in 2004 in DVD Region 1 titled The Full Bouquet.They have also been released as individual box sets combining series 1 and 2 and series 3, 4 and 5.
[edit] Region 2 PAL
In Region 2, series 1 and 2 was released by Universal Playback on 7 March 2003, followed by Series 3 and 4 and the 1991 Christmas Special on 16 February 2004. The fifth series and 1993, 1994 and 1995 specials were released on 26 December 2006.
[edit] Region 4 PAL
The entire series was also released in Region 4 in 2005 under the title The Complete Collection.
