‘DADDY’S ACCIDENT’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

The first episode of ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ is a good introduction to Patricia Routledge as Hyacinth Bucket, who is clearly snobbish from the start. I’m not sure how she ended up snobbish and to be fair, the prequel called ‘Young Hyacinth’ which was made in 2016 wasn’t much help either.

In the episode, Hyacinth is informed that her daddy has had an accident in the canal where he was cycling ‘stark-naked’ on his bike. Hyacinth soon pays a visit to the hospital. In her snobbish manner, Hyacinth tries to make out her daddy wanted ‘extra cream’ rather than chasing a woman on his bike.

It was funny when Hyacinth visits her family to find out what happened to her daddy on that night. The episode gives us a good introduction to Geoffrey Hughes as Onslow, Judy Cornell as Daisy and Shirley Stelfox as Rose. They are Hyacinth’s rough end of the family, especially with how they live. 😐

Hyacinth is embarrassed by her family and their poor living in the slums of a council estate. It’s actually a wonder how Hyacinth managed to end up being ‘higher society’ than Onslow, Daisy and Rose are and that might have something to do with her being married to Clive Swift as Richard here.

Onslow is my favourite character out of ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ and he’s well-performed by Geoffrey Hughes, who’s also well-known for being in ‘Coronation Street’. I’ve also seen Geoffrey Hughes in an episode of ‘Dad’s Army’ and was in the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘The Trial of a Time Lord’. 🙂

Shirley Stelfox only plays Rose in the first season of ‘Keeping Up Appearances’. She’s very good as Rose in the first season and plays Hyacinth’s flirty sister very well. Judy Cornwell is equally good as Daisy here. Incidentally, Onslow sits on a ‘burger beanbag’, which only appears in one TV episode. 😀

At the hospital, Hyacinth gets to see the extent of her daddy’s injuries. It shocks her when she sees them, but she’s able to see Josephine Tewson as Elizabeth for afternoon coffee. It was funny seeing Lizzie being all nerves when handling Hyacinth’s ‘best china’ and it is a running joke during the series.

This episode also features Peter Cellier who makes his debut appearance as the Major in the series. The Major takes a fancy to Hyacinth and makes love to her, which is amusing to see. This episode is a very good introduction to the characters in this series. I was looking forward to seeing more of them.

‘Daddy’s Accident’ rating – 7/10