Keeping Up Appearances

created by id1984

(idea) by stand/alone/bitch (6.4 y) (print) ? (I like it!) Thu Oct 19 2000 at 13:10:49

I don't know when I realized:
(It probably came in stages,
In sly, insidious steps)
But I finally noticed that
Reflecting my slow death
was the house -
Falling apart from the inside out.

(thing) by ignorans (2.2 wk) (print) ? (I like it!) 1 C! Mon Jul 09 2001 at 23:20:52

Also a sitcom aired on BBC from 1990 - 3 and 1995, and also shown in Australia and on PBS in the United States.

This show seems to poke fun at English class structure. Not being English I take an outsider's view of how caste works over there, but I can assume that Hyacinth Bucket (Patricia Routledge) is trying to be upwardly mobile in different and unpredictable ways. Living in what seems to be a "standard" middle class home in a fairly anonymous neighborhood, Hyacinth (last name pronounced "Bouquet") can't leave well enough alone. Pretending to be a long lost Windsor family member, she parades everywhere in Sunday best, big absurd hats and long flowing dresses. She tries desperately to hide her working class relatives Daisy (Judy Cornwell) and Onslow (Geoffrey Hughes) from anyone who might suspect plebian roots. Her husband Richard (Clive Swift) is frequently found with Onslow and Daisy, and meets with Onslow to only get out from Hyacinth's thumb. Add nosy neighbors Elizabeth (Josephine Tewson) and Emmitt (David Griffin), and you have a woman who can't seem to keep her reputation straight.

Hyacinth, as the only person who doesn't understand her own pathetic nature, can't understand why people avoid her company or merely parrot what she wants to hear so that they can make a quick getaway. Even her religious practices are covered in ass-kissing. The poor Vicar (Jeremy Gittins) can't seem to keep Hyacinth out of the rectory, as she scrubs the walls of the church in her usual lace and pearls.

Well worth it, even only if British comedies are aired once a week in your area.

Cast member's names and dates taken from http://britcoms.com/kua/

printable version
chaos

Patricia Routledge	Down and Out in Paris and London	Suppose I try to tell you the secrets of this house, and them that live here	Are You Being Served?
Why a good family is a communist family	British comedy	Hyacinth Bucket	defeat sealed beneath many sure smiles
Multiple Personality Disorder from the Inside Out	Goodness Gracious Me	The Glass Slipper Project	Mr. Bucket
Waiting for God	As Time Goes By	acute necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis	Elementary and Secondary Education Act
How to transmit information faster than light speed	Bouquet	sitcom	Ceaseless toil and broken dreams are the essence of urban living
impression	Red Dwarf	The British Invasion of Tibet	artillery loop

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