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Lady Pat Routledge, who has died at the age of 96, made her mark on the national consciousness as the pretentious Mrs. Bouquet.

Insisting it was "said Bouquet," the character trampled over her patient husband and bewildered neighbours in the popular sitcom, one of Britain's most successful comedies in the 1990s.

Behaving like a aristocrat while living in a suburban area, Hyacinth's over-the-top status-seeking schemes were ultimately doomed to collapse—while she struggled to maintain her composure.

It was Dame Routledge's most famous role in a professional life that saw her earn stage honors on both sides of the Atlantic, emerge as the star of Alan Bennett's famous TV soliloquies, and star as BBC1's investigative Mrs. Wainthropp.

Early Life and Career Beginnings

Katherine Pat Routledge was born in Birkenhead on 17 February 1929.

Her father was a haberdasher and she later recalled sheltering from German bombs in the cellar of his shop during the war.

She studied English at nearby the University of Liverpool and intended to teach. Rather, she entered the Liverpool Playhouse before training at the Bristol Old Vic.

Her successful stage career took her from the provinces to the West End, and eventually to Broadway, where the composer chose her to star in his stage production 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 1976.

She had previously received a Tony award for her acting in Darling of the Day.

She could move effortlessly from lighthearted plays to classics.

She progressed from Stratford-upon-Avon, appearing with the RSC and then to the National Theatre in the capital.

There, her starring role in the theatre production Carousel involved her singing the inspiring You'll Never Walk Alone.

She also took various minor movie parts, especially in the 1967 film To Sir, With Love, and the Jerry Lewis funny film Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River.

Her stage and radio performances proved her range and earned her awards, but it was television that provided Routledge with her best-known characters.

Television Success and Memorable Characters

Initial small-screen work included well-liked programmes like Z Cars and Steptoe and Son.

Subsequently, among Britain's esteemed playwrights, Alan Bennett, penned a series of outstanding Talking Heads TV solos for her.

Routledge overcame her initial reluctance to perform his material and excelled as A Woman of No Importance and A Lady of Letters.

She went onto play a lonely, mid-life department store clerk tipped into a affair with a kinky foot doctor in Bennett's Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet.

A humorous turn as the larger-than-life character on The Victoria Wood Show resulted in the development of Mrs. Bucket.

Routledge remembered being sent the episodes by the author, the screenwriter—who had also done Last of the Summer Wine and Open All Hours.

"I opened the script for a while at 1 a.m. in the morning," she said, "I read straight through and Hyacinth leapt off the script. I knew that woman, I'd met a few of that type."

Keeping Up Appearances ran for five seasons and included four Christmas episodes.

In a film, she stated that admirers had included the royal family and Pope Benedict XVI.

It turned into BBC Worldwide's most-sold show ever and meant Routledge was recognised as distant as Botswana.

For her performance on the comedy, she was voted the UK's all-time favourite actor in 1996, but following five years in the role, she decided it was the moment for a new direction.

"I decided to end it to an close," she said, "and, naturally, the broadcaster didn’t care for at all."

She thought that Roy Clarke was beginning to repeat ideas and mentioned a piece of guidance from the comedian, Ronnie Barker.

"He made sure to finish with audiences saying, ‘Oh, aren’t you doing any more?’ she said, rather than people saying, ‘Is that still running?’"

Subsequent Work and Private Life

Portraying the homely but astute detective in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates gave her ongoing popularity on television, but she consistently referred to the theatre as "the test."

Years after she ceased appearing frequently on television, Routledge undertook theatre tours both in the United Kingdom and overseas.

If interviewers posed the inevitable inquiry, she asked them to write the word retirement since, she explained: "It's not in my vocabulary."

She never married or raised children, but told the press of two great affairs in her youth, including one with a wedded man.

"I experienced guilt and an acute sense that there had to be loss," she admitted. "I guess I persuaded myself that it was all right for the moment because his marriage was not a living thing."

Instead, she devoted herself to her craft, honoring it with the talent, dedication and commitment that were always admired by her peers.

She was scathing about the broadcaster's decision in 2016 to bring back Keeping Up Appearances, but this time set in the 1950s and featuring a younger version of her character.

Questioning the network's approach of resurrecting old comedies she remarked, "For what reason are they doing this sort of project, they must be out of ideas."

She had already clashed with the BBC over their decision to not commission a documentary she had written about the author the children's author (Routledge was a Patron of the literary group), which finally broadcast on Channel 4.

Upon reaching 90, she continued to live peacefully in Chichester, where she busied herself raising funds for the church structure.

In 2017, she became a Dame of the Order of the British Empire but—in contrast to Hyacinth—titles did not go to her head.

Lady Routledge often stated she credited her Northern roots and solid background for giving her practicality with her time and her finances.

Even so, she admitted that, if any extra cash come her way, she'd definitely spend it on "a case of champagne"—an appreciation of the finer pleasures in life that she shared with her most famous creation.

"I was never theatre-obsessed," she said. "I'm not stage-struck today. No one is more surprised than I am that I've, actually, spent my life pursuing this."