The central character is an eccentric and snobbish middle-class social climber, Hyacinth Bucket (Patricia Routledge), who insists that her surname is pronounced "Bouquet".

Keeping Up Appearances was an immense success in the UK, and also captured large audiences in the United States, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

By February 2016, it had been sold nearly a thousand times to overseas broadcasters, making it BBC Worldwide's most exported television programme ever.

")[3] – is an overbearing, social-climbing snob, originally from a lower-class background, whose main mission in life is to impress others with her refinement and pretended affluence.

Hyacinth likes to spend her days visiting stately homes (convinced she will meet and strike up a friendship with the upper-class owners, especially if they are part of the landed gentry or peerage) and hosting "executive-style" candlelight suppers (with her Royal Worcester double-glazed Avignon china and Royal Doulton china with "the hand-painted periwinkles").

[4] She ostentatiously brags about her possessions, including her "white slimline telephone with automatic redial", which she always answers with "The Bouquet residence, the lady of the house speaking.

Hyacinth's attempts to impress makes the lives of those around her difficult; her continual efforts to improve her social position usually involve inviting her unwilling neighbours and friends to "exclusive candlelight suppers".

He initially worked for the council in "Finance and General Purposes", but at the beginning of series three, reluctantly accepts early retirement.

Hyacinth's senile father frequently has flashbacks to the Second World War, and often exhibits bizarre behaviour, sometimes involving embarrassing situations with women (Onslow describes him as "barmy").

[6] Hyacinth is blissfully oblivious of the seemingly obvious hints that Sheridan, who lives with a man named Tarquin (who makes his own curtains, wears silk pyjamas, and has won prizes for embroidery), is gay,[7] but Richard appears to have realised this, asking Hyacinth if she has ever wondered why Sheridan shows no interest in girls.

Hyacinth frequently confronts the postman with complaints, harassing him to the point that he will go to extreme lengths not to face her; she often forces workmen and other visitors to her home to remove their shoes before entering.

Michael, the vicar of the local church (Jeremy Gittins) is also loath to face the overbearing Hyacinth, to whom he refers (behind her back) as "the Bucket woman".

The series officially ended after the episode "The Pageant", because Patricia Routledge wanted to focus on other TV and theatre work, including Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, which began airing in 1996.

Clive Swift, who portrayed Richard, stated in a BBC interview that Routledge "didn't want to be remembered as simply 'Mrs.

[10] Exterior shots around Hyacinth's house were recorded at a privately owned residence at 117 Heather Road, Binley Woods, Warwickshire, east of Coventry.

Stars Clive Swift, Josephine Tewson, Judy Cornwell and David Griffin, along with writer Roy Clarke and producer/director Harold Snoad, all discussed the series.

Specifically, Clarke refused to act as anything but a writer and rarely visited the set or location shoots, necessitating that Snoad make minor rewrites to accommodate the realities of taping.

[9] In early 2008, Geoffrey Hughes reprised his role as Onslow once again for a clipshow of the series; this was for broadcast on American television and sees him teaching a credit course at the Open University having selected "successful relationships" as his subject matter.

[14][15][16] When Keeping Up Appearances did not return, after Patricia Routledge announced that she no longer wished to play Hyacinth, Roy Clarke proposed a spin-off series called Mind Your Manors.

The series was referenced in BBC in-house literature during 1997 and 1998 and later described by both Clarke and Geoffrey Hughes as part of a discussion of the character of Onslow in Radio 4's Archive on 4: On Northern Men,[17] broadcast in 2009.

The spin-off would have seen Onslow forced to take a supposedly "easy" job tending the gardens of a large manor house estate owned by a doddery and rather forgetful old Lord.

Su Pollard was approached to play the role of Miss Dorothy "Dotty" Henshaw, the Lord's eccentric and easily flustered cook/housekeeper who remains with the estate, and some preliminary location shooting was reportedly undertaken.

The documentary features an interview with Routledge, who was 93 at the time, sharing her memories of the show, along with supporting cast members Judy Cornwell, Jeremy Gittins and David Janson.

Routledge explains why – despite her fondness for every element of the sitcom, that it was her own personal decision, to call time on the show, when the BBC and all of the other cast and crew members would have loved for it to have continued.

[52] This was published in 1995 and is presented in a diary format chronicling a year in Hyacinth Bucket's life, with typical comments about her relations and neighbours.

It features summary descriptions of each episode, cast and crew biographies, series photographs and an interview with Harold Snoad.

[55] The cast included Rachel Bell as Hyacinth, Kim Hartman as Elizabeth, Gareth Hale as Onslow, Steven Pinder as Emmet, Debbie Arnold as Rose, David Janson (who had previously appeared in the TV show as the postman) as Mr Edward Milson, a new character created for the stage show,[56] Christine Moore as Daisy and Sarah Whitlock as Mrs Debden.

This adaptation, directed by playwright Johnny Culver, made its American premiere in New York City in March 2015, at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church Theater Fellowship/Jones Auditorium.

[60] Hyacinth was played by Kerry Howard; Rose by Katie Redford; Daisy by Katherine Pearce; Violet by Tamla Kari and Daddy by Mark Addy.