Dame Patricia Routledge obituary

Formidable and versatile actor best known for her comic turn as the snobbish Hyacinth Bucket in the BBC sitcom Keeping Up Appearances

There were times when you felt that Patricia Routledge, the popular and formidable actor, who has died aged 96, embodied the true voice of middle England with its smug self-confidence, disapproval of moral weakness in others and unshakeable sense of snobbish superiority.

Such character traits were, of course, translated into glorious comic flaws in her best-known role, Hyacinth Bucket (“pronounced Bouquet”), in the BBC television series Keeping Up Appearances (1990-95), written by Roy Clarke, in which Hyacinth’s social-climbing aspirations were punctured by her own absurd over-reaching and the impingement of grim reality, in the shape of an embarrassing sister and her slob of a husband living on a council estate situated too close for comfort. Hyacinth was a variation on the traditional stage battleaxe, with oddly sympathetic undertones, as when Routledge, riffling the net curtains, would cut across the horror of a new man staying next door with an aghast cry of, “We’ll have to move!” Clive Swift as her supine husband would grin and bear it and even suggest a delighted astonishment at her outbursts.