‘YOUNG HYACINTH’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
On the 2nd of September 2016, I saw ‘Young Hyacinth’, the one-off prequel to the BBC TV sitcom series ‘Keeping Up Appearances’. It was shown on BBC One in the UK as part of the BBC Landmark Sitcom Season. I eventually purchased the one-off prequel as a download via Amazon Prime Video. 🙂
Because I love ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ as a series, I naturally wanted to watch this prequel on TV. I hoped this would be an interesting insight into how Hyacinth became who she would be in ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ and how she met Richard. Sadly, it didn’t turn out that way once I saw the prequel.
I found it interesting, but it didn’t have the same charm and humour that the original ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ series had. Despite the prequel being penned by Roy Clarke, the original author of the series, and with some in house-jokes to add to the sitcom, I didn’t find this prequel to be very funny.
Maybe a laugh-track would’ve helped and perhaps making the prequel on video instead of film would’ve reminded us of what ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ was like. I understand why ‘Harry Hill’s World of TV’ didn’t have a laugh-track to it, because that series was made during the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘Young Hyacinth’ takes place 40 years before the events of ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ – so, the 1950s then. It’s made very clear that the prequel takes place in the 1950s with quite a lot of 1950s music and songs played throughout. ‘Mr. Sandman’ is one of them. It reminded me of ‘Back to the Future’.
The prequel stars Kerry Howard as Hyacinth. Now, I think Kerry Howard is a decent Hyacinth. It would’ve been nice to have seen more of her as the character to give this ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ prequel a fair chance. The problem is that she’s the same character as in ‘Keeping Up Appearances’.
She doesn’t change! Had more been explored in terms of how Hyacinth ended up becoming snobbish, rather than just seeing her working as a housemaid at somebody’s house, maybe this one-off prequel could have had legs. On its own, it doesn’t progress in a manner that’s really memorable.
The prequel also features Mark Addy as Daddy (who looks nothing like George Webb in ‘Keeping Up Appearances’), Talma Kari as Violet, Katherine Pearce as Daisy and Katie Redford as Rose. Sadly, the characters of Richard and Onslow don’t appear in this prequel, which I found rather disappointing. 😦
There’s also Tony Gardner (who would later appear in ‘The Larkins’ in 2021) as Claude and Debra Stephenson as Dulcie. I found the aristocratic couple bickering and cheating on each other unfunny. There’s Tim Downie as Freddie and James Wrighton as William, who could easily have been Richard.
The prequel ended too quickly for my liking. At 30 minutes, by the end I was like “Is that it?” I expected more backstory for Hyacinth’s character as a young person. Obviously, it’s difficult to capture that in a 30-minute episode. Had more episodes been made, I could have overlooked that. 😦
‘Young Hyacinth’ was enjoyable at the time I saw it, but I wasn’t satisfied with the short amount of time this prequel offered. I hoped for more on why Hyacinth became the way she ended up becoming with being so snobbish. But it didn’t seem to come through, which is very disappointing. 😦
It felt more like a drama than a comedy. If this was an hour long instead of 30 minutes, I could’ve enjoyed it more. If a full series came after this, I’d look forward to it. It would’ve been nice to have seen more of Kerry Howard as Hyacinth. Sadly, that wasn’t to be the case, which is a huge shame.
‘Young Hyacinth’ rating – 4/10
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