Keeping Up Appearances

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Keeping Up Appearances ranks 563 out of the 18,228 shows on TV.com.

The 395 users who count themselves as Keeping Up Appearances fans have written a total of 28 reviews.

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Ended

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Keeping Up Appearances was one of the best and most popular British sitcoms, or 'Britcoms,' of all time.

Patricia Routledge played Hyacinth Bucket, a woman who pretended to be upper-class but wasn't. To side herself with Britain's top ten percent, Hyacinth insisted her surname be pronounced... more »

Keeping Up Appearances was one of the best and most popular British sitcoms, or 'Britcoms,' of all time.

Patricia Routledge played Hyacinth Bucket, a woman who pretended to be upper-class but wasn't. To side herself with Britain's top ten percent, Hyacinth insisted her surname be pronounced "bouquet." Her attention to cleanliness, candlelight suppers, and desire to sing gave pain to her husband Richard and her neighbors.

Hyacinth, who once wrote a book of "Etiquette for the Socially Less-Fortunate," wanted to give her skills to anyone she met: the vicar, the postman, the milkman. She shuddered to think of her poor father, living in a run-down house with her sister Daisy and her bare-armed husband, Onslow. Generally, though, the likes of Daisy and Onslow would weigh out, while Hyacinth bowed out.

The brilliance in its tact and humor helped make Keeping Up Appearances, in July 1999, the first Britcom to air in the U.S. with closed-captioning for the hearing-impaired.

However, the show has no conclusion. The last episode 'The Pageant' aired on Christmas Day 1995, but the show was not cancelled here and another series was written. However, Patricia Routledge decided that after 5 years, she did not wish to reprise the role for a sixth series, no matter how much the BBC courted here, and how they did. Routledge went on to star in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates for the BBC. Therefore, there is not actually any decisive ending or finale to the show.less «

• Everybody loved Hyacinth but who interracted best with her?

  Hi Everyone, 'Keeping Up Appearances' is without doubt my favourite ever Sitcom. I thought Patricia Routledge was...more »

  Hi Everyone, 'Keeping Up Appearances' is without doubt my favourite ever Sitcom. I thought Patricia Routledge was superb in the main role and I can't think of anybody who could have done it better but I was wondering whom everybody thought acted best with her out of the rest of the cast? They were all fantastic but I finally picked mine. For me, it was very definitely Richard (Clive Swift) and Emmet (David Griffin). What are your thoughts? Cheers, Lady Lancaster less «

  Lady_Lancaster Last online 12 hrs, 57 mins ago
  1 comments, last one 12 days ago + Add Comment

• Favourite episode

  What was your favourite episode? Mine was the one where Rose locks herself in her room in Series 3. I also liked the holday broch-ures episode and when Hyacinth goes looking for charismatic country cottages.

  What was your favourite episode? Mine was the one where Rose locks herself in her room in Series 3. I also liked the holday broch-ures episode and when Hyacinth goes looking for charismatic country cottages.less «

  lushsista Last online Sep 26, 2008
  28 comments, last one Jun 11, 2009 + Add Comment

• Take the Keeping Up Appearances Quiz!

  Take the quiz and let us know how you do! http://uktv.co.uk/gold/quiz/aid/590584

  Take the quiz and let us know how you do! http://uktv.co.uk/gold/quiz/aid/590584 less «

  cherrytree34 Last online 13 days ago
  12 comments, last one Sep 14, 2008 + Add Comment

•  

  10 Perfect

  Perfectly funny because of controll freak Hyacynth(sp?). hide « show »

  This British Comedy is one of my favourites because of the annoying character Hyacynth(main char.) She is a controll freak who is very inclined to be on a high social status and has to succeed more than everyone else. She boasts of her candle light dinners, her son(who is gay people she knows and how she loves the artistic community. The show is funnier every episode.her neighbor Elizabeth is very nervous in hyacynths house when she is over for coffee but nowhere else. Her divorced brother Emmett is always being hounded by Hyacynth because she wants a part in his theatrical play. Hyacynth thinks that the only person in her family worth knowing is her sister Violet and Violets husband Bruce.The show should be played forever in my opinion.

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  ElvisRocks13 Added Jul 13, 2008 All my reviews
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  10 Perfect

  Want a show that will keep you laughing time and time again? this is it. hide « show »

  one of the best comedy shows ever, Keeping Up Appearances is one of those shows that will keep you laughing out loud every time you watch it. the show revolves around an englishwoman named Hyacinth Bucket, or as she prefers it to be pronounced, Bouquet, who specializes in trying to be a class above everybody else in the most hilarious fashion, her polar-opposite husband, who meekly obeys her every command,her nieghbours, her sister, who take care of their senile father, who himself has his share of crazy antics, and many other people in which she comes in contact with. In fact, this review doesn't do the show its justice. Go watch it yourself to see!

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  halberdierv2 Added May 18, 2008 All my reviews
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  9 Superb

  The name of Bucket will live forever! hide « show »

  Keeping up appearances was just about the last of the classic British sitcom. Hyacynth was of course embraced by viewers across the world, and almost resulting in an Americanised version - Thank god that never happened!
  
  Hyacynth helped create our sterotype of the nagging social-climbing middle-aged housewife, as well as the subserviant suffering husband. Put simple she became a household name.
  
  KUP did have a habit of being repetitive, but it also had this habit of always being funny! The stunts and often hard to time right scenes - for a group of oldies on a budget of a British TV sitcom, was always well recieved, Highlights being:
  
  1) Hyacynth in a Fun House
  2) Hyacynth being taken for a run...By a dog
  3) Hyacynth and Richard on a boat and falling out
  4) Hyacynth catching the flying Royal Doulton
  5) The Mad-dash on the QE2
  
  Keeping up Appearances is a fun and original show - Yes it does use tried and tested comedy techniques - But British Sitcoms dont run as long as this one did (By the way, it only ended because the actors wanted out) if their not popular.

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  CellBlocknutter Added Apr 20, 2008 All my reviews
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  10 Perfect

  hilarious antics of a english woman hide « show »

  Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Bouquet) is a fairly well to do lady who desires to be at the top of the social ladder and so invites friends, influential people and her neighbours Elizabeth and Emmet over for candlelight/lit suppers. She never stops in her efforts, and often refers to her sister Violets house, mercedes and room for a pony. Mind you, all these efforts invariably end in social disaster. Her husband Richard, who is thought of in a pitying way by others who admire his ability to cope with his wifes singing and insistence on following the right socal protocol, works for the council but often has to stop working for one of his wifes problems when it arises. Hyacinth's sister lives in a squalid low class house with her father, an insane war veteran, and her husband Onslow, who is slothful and decadent and could best be described as a couch potato if it werent for the fact he often sits in bed. Eating crisps and watching the telly he is however intelligent and rational. Rose who lives there also is a woman with habits Hyacinth dissaproves of strongly and Onslows tattoos are no help. All this usually leads to much chaos and social upheaval to the amusement of viewers. A funny show.

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  Atomius1 Added Apr 1, 2008 All my reviews
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  9 Superb

  The Bucket Residence, lady of the house speaking... hide « show »

  I was thinking of writing a review for the episode that I have just watched, 'The Hostess', but I figured that I would only end up commenting on how much I loved the show, I figured it would be better to review the show as a whole.
  
  Now, as a child I used to love Keeping Up Appearances; the careful slapstick and funny faces executed by Patricia Routledge fuelled my love for this very nineties sitcom. Now that I'm in my late teens, I can appriciate it it for so much more.
  
  The representation of British snobbery is so highly mocked, and I love how every American (and possibly other nationality) believe that this is how Britain behaves. In reality, it's possibly more like Daisy and Onslow than Hyacinth and Richard.
  
  The show does look a little dated these days, with Hyacinth's floral dresses, the old Rover car and the astonishment of Hyacinth when she receives a brand new mobile telephone. But it definitely doesn't make it any less funny. Although the show is very formulaic, there is enough change from episode to episode to make the same joke hilarious.
  
  As I watched the first series, I began to notice a pattern as many watchers will have spotted. Hyacinth acts like a snob, Elizabeth has coffee, Daddy runs away, cue some sort of rescue mission. But by the end of the series five, the storylines are much more complex, and even dare for 'off set excursions' such as a trip to the funfair with a travel sick parishoner. Even as early on as the third series, the storylines become less about forcing Hyacinth's snobbery onto the audience and more onto the relationships between the couples, as well as Rose and her ever increasing little black book.
  
  Overall, the show will remain one of my all time favourite comedies that has come out of Blighty. It's clever way of using the same lines over and over, yet still remaining hilarious ("It's ma sister Violet, the one with the Mercedes, sauna and room for a pony..") is possibly the best part of the show, not forgetting, of course, the wonderful Patricia Routledge who pulls off the role of Hyacinth Bucket with such class, it almost makes me believe that her character in real life is just as stuck up as her on-screen counterpart.
  
  Wonderful.

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  Mikay Added Feb 18, 2008 All my reviews