‘VIOLET’S COUNTRY COTTAGE’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

In this episode, Hyacinth borrows Violet and Bruce’s luxury country cottage for the weekend in order to hold a barbecue. Whilst at the country cottage, Hyacinth attempts to impress a lady and her husband from the local manor house. Thing do get carried away in the proceedings of impressing. 😐

For me, this isn’t one of the best episodes from the ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ series. It’s okay, but I was hoping for Hyacinth to actually hold a barbecue in the episode. That won’t happen until Series 5 when Hyacinth and Richard entertain at Violet’s house, but I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here. 😀

This episode was all over the place for me. I wouldn’t mind it so much if there was time given to plot details that seemed to be promised throughout the episode including the prospect of a barbecue about to happen at Violet’s country cottage. It seems the episode ran out of time for it altogether. 🙁

Another problem I have with this episode is that most of it has Hyacinth and Richard meeting Marcia Warren as Bunty and Royce Mills as Dorian from the manor house. Most of the time, they spend drinking too many cocktails and dancing around a lot in the summer time. It makes this episode silly.

Incidentally, Royce Mills voiced some Daleks in their 1980s ‘Doctor Who’ stories including ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’, ‘Revelation of the Daleks’ and ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’. It’s incredible the things you discover when you spot actors that may have appeared in ‘Doctor Who’. 😀

I enjoyed it when Daisy and Rose were keen to attend Hyacinth’s barbecue once their Daddy had been invited. Onslow however isn’t keen since he knows Hyacinth will polish the hot dogs and it won’t be much fun for him. But Hyacinth’s Daddy isn’t going anywhere without his Polish lady friend.

I found it funny when Hyacinth tried to pronounce ‘Mrs. Thing’s polish name. She couldn’t do it when writing it down on paper whilst on the phone to Daisy. I also liked it when Richard tried to look for Bunty’s dog Zoe. It transpires that ‘Mrs. Thing’s name is also Zoe, making this pretty coincidental.

There is a scene in the episode where Emmet’s overjoyed about Hyacinth being away for a couple of days, but Elizabeth tells him they’re expected to attend a barbecue. Emmet is upset about this. Incidentally, we don’t see Elizabeth and Emmet attending the barbecue by the episode’s conclusion.

‘Violet’s Country Cottage’ rating – 6/10