Harold Snoad, long-time sitcom producer and director for the BBC passed away 2 June at the age of 88. Best known for Keeping Up Appearances, it was Snoad who cast Dame Patricia Routledge in the lead role, explaining: “I wanted the character of Hyacinth to be a sort of stately galleon. I didn’t want somebody lightweight, […]
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One of the few upsides of digging out after another year of semi-living under an ever-present pandemic cloud is the opportunity to send good wishes for a very happy birthday to the brilliant Dame Katherine Patricia Routledge, who turns 95 today. Given Hyacinth would have been appalled at the possibility that I might forget to drop […]
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Even though it’s highly doubful that one of the best restaurants in Australia get its name from Hyacinth Bucket’s description of her sister Violet’s successful lifestyle, it is fun to think that the owners of Room for a Pony in North Hobart are long-time fans of the classic British comedy, Keeping Up Appearances. Unlike Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream out of […]
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Last of the Summer Wine, the long-running British situation comedy written by Roy Clarke (Open All Hours, Keeping Up Appearances, Still Open All Hours, Young Hyacinth) lasted for a mere 31 seasons encompassing 295 episodes (1973-2010) and featured the trials and tribulations of three pensioners (Bill Owen as Compo, Peter Sallis as Norman Clegg and Michael Bates […]
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Aside from the brilliant series, I Claudius, it seems like an ‘Ides of March’ (the 74th day of the Roman calendar) cannot pass without thinking of the classic BBC comedy, Up Pompeii, starring the late, great Frankie Howerd.
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If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then satirical parody imitation must be off the charts. From the the Dutch satire TV show De TV-Kantine, comes their own take on the iconic BBC series, Keeping Up Appearances with Carlo Boszhard, Dutch TV personality, singer, impersonator, and host as Hyacinth. While admittedly just a tad bit ‘over the top’, […]
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Filmed in locations across the West Midlands, the most iconic location, Hyacinth and Richard Bucket’s home, was a quiet family home in Coventry before television crews knocked on the door of current owner Rosemary Healey to ultimately set up shop for what was to become Hyacinth’s famous house, along with her neighbor, Elizaben Warden’s home […]
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Tom Owen, who played Tom Simmonite in Last Of The Summer Wine, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 73. Having starred in over 90 episodes of the sitcom between 2000 and 2010, Owen played Tom Simmonite, the long lost son of William ‘Compo’ Simmonite – the character who was played by his real-life father, Bill Owen.
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Mackenzie Crook, the writer, director and star behind the brilliant metal-detecting sitcom The Detectorists, confirmed there will be one last sweep of the English countryside coming from his mind palace which will warrant getting the band back together in the not-too-distant future. The series, which finished after three series in 2017, was not only a very cerebral […]
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One of the few upsides of another year living under a pandemic cloud is the opportunity to send good wishes for a very happy birthday to the brilliant Dame Patricia Routledge, who turns 93 today. Given Hyacinth would have been appalled at the possibility that I might forget to drop a card in the post […]
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