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Keeping Up Appearances (Season 5)
“Bouquet residence—the lady of the house speaking!”
Ah, the eternally repeated catchphrase of Hyacinth Bucket answering her
“white slimline telephone”. Patricia Routledge dominates this
ironic British comedy about the ultimate ‘aspirational voter’ who
treasures the Queen, her Royal Doultan “with the hand-painted
periwinkles” is irrepressibly funny in my opinion. The endless
situations in which she, her husband, her family and her unfortunate
neighbours and even the vicar find themselves are gems of comedy.
Rather than describe such situations in even one
episode, let alone the whole fifth (and final) season, I want to sketch
for you what I find to appealing and endearing about Keeping up
Appearance. Writer Roy Clarke and director Harold Snoad have created
the suburban nightmare from the suburban dream. There are four florally
named sisters: Hyacinth (Routledge) who has probably ingested well over
half of all the etiquette books ever published (but only in English!);
Daisy (Judy Cornwell) whose grey hair is always in pigtails and who is
unkempt but endearing—she yearns for her slovenly husband Onslow’s
(Geoffrey Hughes) sexual attention but he doesn’t want to be treated “as
a sex object” and prefers to read a thick book on Condensed Matter
Physical; Rose (Mary Millar) who thinks virtually any man (including the
vicar) is “dishy” and wears skirts so short she’d put Nanny Fine to
shame; finally there’s Violet, only an occasional character whose
husband Bruce is a wealthy bookie and so has a Mercedes, a sauna and
room for a pony.
An off-screen character which almost rival’s
Frasier’s Meris (but not quite) is Hyancinth’s beloved son Sheridan
who lives with a male flatmate: they sew their own curtains. The
deliciousness comes from her delirious ignorance of his flamboyant
homosexuality.
Like most good Britcoms, this show’s greatest
strength is in the writing. The witty use of language and the crazy
lampooning of manners by showing their extreme manifestation can only be
enjoyable. I wouldn’t recommend the whole series for the uninitiated
though. It takes some getting used to. But once you’re in the ‘Bucket
zone’, you’ll find it hard to leave.
The audio and video are quite good and there are even
some extras, such as out-takes and a talkshow interview, plus a weird
retrospective episode of some of the funnier scenes all put together
using the device of Hyacinth’s diary.
Felix Staica |
