Keeping Up Appearances star Dame Patricia Routledge has died, aged 96. The actor was best known for playing the snobby sitcom character Hyacinth Bucket, which she pronounced “bouquet”, from 1990 to 1995.
In a statement, Routledge’s agent said: “We are deeply saddened to confirm the passing of Dame Patricia Routledge, who died peacefully in her sleep this morning, surrounded by love.
“Even at 96 years old, Dame Patricia’s passion for her work and for connecting with live audiences never waned, just as new generations of audiences have continued to find her through her beloved television roles. She will be dearly missed by those closest to her and by her devoted admirers around the world.”
Keeping Up Appearances was a huge hit in its heyday, attracting 13 million viewers at its peak and earning the actor national acclaim.
The versatile but modest star, who said she was “not very good at anything”, had a career that took her far beyond the realm of TV sitcoms.
She had a long and varied life on the stage, and at the age of 66 she played a pensioner-turned-detective, Hetty Wainthropp, in a £3m six-part BBC TV crime series.
Born in Tranmere, Cheshire in 1929, Routledge was educated at Birkenhead High School, the University of Liverpool, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and the Guildhall School of Music.
As a youngster, she toyed with the idea of being an actor, a singer or a teacher. After being rejected for a scholarship at the Royal Manchester School of Music, she gave up on the idea of a singing career, but she was taken on as an unpaid assistant stage manager by Liverpool Playhouse.
After some months, she was offered a job with the company at £5 a week, making her theatre debut in 1952 as Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
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She made her London debut in 1954 and quickly established herself as a major character actor, becoming known as “the female Stan Laurel”.
Routledge later became a hit in New York thanks to her Broadway performance in the play How’s The World Treating You?
Famed composer Leonard Bernstein later penned solos especially for her as she starred on Broadway in the presidential drama 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Dame Patricia always regarded her mentor as Alistair Sim, whom she played opposite in at least two Pinero comedies.
She said: “From him I learned that comedy is instinct and that once you try to discuss why a laugh is dying you kill it stone dead.”
Extensive TV work in Britain from the 1950s saw her carve out memorable roles as Victoria Regina for Granada in 1964 and as Kitty in Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV in the mid-1980s.
But she won a permanent place in the nation’s affections as Hyacinth Bucket – who insisted her last name was pronounced “bouquet”.
In 1996, a year after the show ended, she was named Britain’s all-time favourite actress.
Dame Patricia was awarded an OBE in 1993, a CBE in 2004, and was made a dame in the 2017 New Year Honours.
Other accolades included an Olivier Award for her role as the Old Lady in Bernstein’s operetta Candide in 1988 and a Tony Award for her part as Alice Challice in Darling Of The Day in 1968.
Speaking in 2017, she said she had no favoured role from her long career on the stage, adding: “I don’t do beloved roles, I’ve just had a wonderfully interesting time with so many roles.”
Dame Patricia never married and had no children.
She once said: “I didn’t make a decision not to be married and not to be a mother. Life just turned out like that because my involvement in acting was so total.”
Before her 95th birthday, Routledge wrote a poignant message which has chimed with many fans and admirers ever since. “I’ll be turning 95 this coming Monday. In my younger years, I was often filled with worry — worry that I wasn’t quite good enough, that no one would cast me again, that I wouldn’t live up to my mother’s hopes. But these days begin in peace, and end in gratitude.”
“I’m writing this to tell you something simple. Growing older is not the closing act. It can be the most exquisite chapter – if you let yourself bloom again. Let these years ahead be your treasure years. You don’t need to be famous. You don’t need to be flawless.You only need to show up – fully – for the life that is still yours.”
Tributes have since been paid to the star. Etiqutte expert Grant Harrold wrote: “So sad to hear of the passing of Dame Katherine Patricia Routledge. I had the pleasure of meeting her on a few occasions — a true lady in every sense of the word and had the perfect manners !!!”
Fellow etiquette expert William Hanson added: “Dame Patricia Routledge, 1929 – 2025. Now off to the candlelight supper in the sky. Thank you for everything. Hyacinth’s final words in Keeping Up Appearances seem fitting.” In the final scene of the show, Hyacinth is seen on a stretcher being placed in an ambulance saying: “Tell God it’s ‘bouquet.”
Journalist Rob Osbourne said: “Dame Patricia Routledge. Legend. She was far bigger than Keeping up Appearances but that show was huge – in the UK and US.”
