Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’s blog and I’m Tim Bradley.

This year, we sadly lost Dame Patricia Routledge, well-known for playing Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced ‘Bouquet’ 😀 ) in ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ and has played Hetty Wainthropp in ‘Hetty Wainthropp Investigates’. I will cherish very fond memories of watching her. 🙂

To pay tribute to Patricia Routledge, I’ve decided to share quick reviews on two episodes of the ‘Remembers…’ series where she’s interviewed about her memories of working on ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ and ‘Hetty Wainthropp Investigates’. I’ve greatly enjoyed them.

I’ve shared reviews on two ‘Remembers…’ episodes where Peter Davison and Christopher Timothy remember ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ and Peter Davison recalls ‘Campion’. It’s nice to return to the ‘Remembers…’ series with Patricia Routledge.

It’s easy to regard Patricia Routledge as the lady who played the snobbish Hyacinth Bucket in ‘Keeping Up Appearances’. But it’s also easy to forget she was very talented in drama as well as comedy, which I appreciate from seeing ‘Hetty Wainthropp Investigates’.

From her interviews, I’ve enjoyed how Patricia shares her memories of working on the two shows and how she rates the quality of the writing of the two shows. She praises the writing of ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ very highly and I like her insights into the show’s characters.

Patricia recalls working with Clive Swift as her husband Richard, and I like the backstory they came up with on how Hyacinth and Richard first met at a literary book club. It’s also nice she shared how Hyacinth and Richard are ‘perfect’ for each other in their marriage. 🙂

She describes that Richard is someone who likes to be looked after and how Hyacinth provides that for him. I like how Patricia shares how she enjoyed Richard’s reactions to Hyacinth to when on the telephone to Sheridan and she shares her thoughts on Sheridan.

It’s amusing Patricia was determined for Sheridan not to be seen in ‘Keeping Up Appearances’, claiming everyone knew what he looked like. It echoes Arthur Lowe saying everybody knew what Captain Mainwaring’s wife Elizabeth in ‘Dad’s Army’ looked like. 🙂

I enjoyed Patricia sharing her memories of enjoying Onslow’s character (played by Geoffrey Hughes) and I liked it when she shared her favourite episode about being on the QE2. I also enjoyed how she shared about stopping the TV show when it was getting good.

Moving on to ‘Hetty Wainthropp Investigates’, I liked it when she shared about being involved in the crime TV series and how it was a contrast to being in ‘Keeping Up Appearances’. She shares her memories of working with Derek Benfield as her husband. 🙂

And I liked it when Patricia shared her memories of working with Dominic Monaghan as Geoffrey in the series. She shares on all the hard work he’s done over the years since being in ‘Hetty Wainthropp Investigates’, particularly in doing his own nature programme.

I like how Patricia touches upon the serious topics addressed in ‘Hetty Wainthropp Investigates’ and how she played her character in being down-to-earth and taking no-nonsense. It’s also fascinating she reflects on how 60+ people are represented in the series.

It’s a shame about ‘Hetty Wainthropp Investigates’ not being renewed for a fifth series because the new head at the BBC at the time didn’t want to renew the TV show. It’s amusing Patricia’s words about the BBC being handled by a ’10-year-old’ were misinterpreted by the media.

Looking back on Dame Patricia Routledge’s career as an actress in both comedy and drama has been fascinating and thought-provoking. I regard her highly in both ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ and ‘Hetty Wainthropp Investigates’, and I’m glad I’ve seen the two shows.

I don’t know much about her singing career, but she sings better in ‘Hetty Wainthropp Investigates’ compared to ‘Keeping Up Appearances’. 😀 I’ve enjoyed her guest star role in one of the ‘Steptoe & Son’ episodes and I’ve seen her briefly in the film ‘To Sir, with Love’.

It’s very sad that Patricia Routledge is no longer with us, but I’m pleased to have shared my thoughts on ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ and ‘Hetty Wainthropp Investigates’ on my blog. There’s no doubt I’ll be revisiting the two TV shows with great enthusiasm in the future.

My prayers and thoughts go to the friends and family of Dame Patricia Routledge during this difficult time. Check out the BBC News tribute to Patricia Routledge here.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂