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Keeping Up Appearances

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PHONE RINGS

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The Bouque-e-et residence! The lady of the house speaking.

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Everybody knows a Hyacinth.

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The mother-in-law, the next door neighbour, the aunt up the road.

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Everybody's got one. I think that's what made it such a success.

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In 1990, the BBC unleashed on a defenceless public a monster

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wearing a floral dress and an occasional matching hat.

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I don't think Hyacinth had any self-awareness.

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People like that don't.

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They don't know what they're doing to the world.

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With writer Roy Clarke and producer/director Harold Snoad, Patricia Routledge

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made the name Hyacinth Bucket a shorthand for the worst excesses of snobbery and social climbing.

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In her assault on decorum, she was backed up by a few of acting's big guns and Keeping Up Appearances

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became a national pastime, running for 45 episodes over five years.

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You know me, Richard.

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I haven't a snobbish bone in my body.

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The idea of rising up from your origins is built into all of us.

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We all want to aspire.

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What's so wonderful is that, with the other two sisters, you see exactly where she's come from.

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No, Rose, not to one of your gentlemen friends on my white slimline telephone.

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The public liked seeing her standing there,

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thinking everyone's beneath her. They were just waiting for it to go wrong.

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And it always did.

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What is it, Richard?

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-There's someone at the door.

-Well, show them in.

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It's your sister, Rose.

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If you have to live with it, it must be murder.

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Keeping Up Appearances was the third big hit from Roy Clarke, who had spent years telling tales

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of Yorkshire backwaters, before plunging into the shark-infested seas of suburban snobbery.

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Clarke's varied experiences out in the real world

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would prove invaluable when it came to adding another trade to his CV.

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I'd done everything.

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Taxi driver.

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I worked for Montague Burton's. I worked as a teacher.

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I was in the police force for a couple of years, which was very valuable training for a writer.

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But in all of them, I was still a writer trying to get into writing.

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From writing drama for BBC Radio Leeds, Roy broke into TV in 1970

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with The Misfit starring Ronald Fraser.

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Three years later, the BBC asked him to invent a comedy

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based on the adventures of three old men in Yorkshire.

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It's now the longest running sitcom in British TV history.

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Clarke stayed faithful to his Yorkshire roots with Open All Hours.

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It began life as one of a series of one-off vehicles for Ronnie Barker, alongside the less memorable

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Spanner's XI, which saw Clarke working alongside producer Harold Snoad for the very first time.

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I mean, look at this here, look at this.

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38 quid that cabinet cost to have made, and look at it.

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Third prize in the snooker contest.

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Roy Clarke was something of an outsider, but Harold Snoad was very definitely a BBC insider.

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Among his credits were The Dick Emery Show, Dad's Army, Don't Wait Up and Ever Decreasing Circles.

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-This is my private workshop.

-I know.

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What would you say if you opened your safe and found me inside it?

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Don't laugh. It's a serious question.

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Sorry, Martin. I'd say, "Hello, Martin. How are you?"

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-You'd say, "What do you think you're doing in my safe?"

-Well, I would be curious. It's only one foot square.

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With so much experience, Harold Snoad was an obvious choice to bring Keeping Up Appearances to life.

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I could actually see there could be a lot of fun from this snobbish lady,

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especially when her attempts at being better than anybody else were brought to the ground rather rapidly

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by the antics of her downmarket relatives on the other side of town.

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Seeing the potential of a Hyacinth is one thing. Realising it through casting is quite another.

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This was vital to the success of the show and Harold Snoad knew that it would take an actor of star quality

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to make a character of such incredible snobbery and pretension both believable and likeable.

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It's my sister, Violet - the one with her own Mercedes, swimming pool and room for a sauna.

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I've told you about Violet.

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BOTH: Ye-e-es!

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I wanted the character of Hyacinth,

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who is the first person you'd obviously think about, to be a sort of stately galleon.

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I didn't want somebody lightweight, either in, well, to be honest, size, or vocal tones.

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Borrow a floral bikini?

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Oh, dear, you know perfectly well I have no such garment in my wardrobe.

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Look, look...

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'People assume I wrote Keeping Up Appearances for Patricia Routledge.

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'But placing Patricia Routledge in Keeping Up Appearances'

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was entirely down to Harold Snoad who produced it and pulled off that perfect bit of casting.

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Up, one-two. Down-one, two.

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It's an exercise, you know, for the hips. Very good. Oh!

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Long before becoming a weekly and appalling guest in 12 million homes, Patricia Routledge was already

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one of the country's most celebrated actors.

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As part of the satire boom in the early 1960s, she appeared regularly in That Was The Week That Was.

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# Take a handout, you naughty boys

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# You're not the type that one employs

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# If you had coal you'd only keep it in your bath

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# They should stamp out you naughty boys. #

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But the theatre was Patricia Routledge's first love,

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and she enjoyed stage success on both sides of the Atlantic.

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Patricia Routledge...

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APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

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Hold it, babe. In Darling Of The Day...

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On Broadway in 1968, she was presented with a prestigious Tony Award by the great Groucho Marx.

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And from you!

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Whoopee! LAUGHTER

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Patricia Routledge's appearances on television included guesting

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as a fake medium in Steptoe And Son, and Miss Ruddock in the very first of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads.

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But before Keeping Up Appearances fell into her floral lap,

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she was best known as Kitty in Victoria Wood - As Seen on TV.

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"Dear Kitty..." It says Arabella.

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"My boyfriend and I used to make love twice a night,

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"but now it has dropped off." I'm not surprised.

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"Is he getting tired of me?" Well, I'm getting tired of you, and I've never even met you.

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It took just one reading of the first Keeping Up Appearances script

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to convince Patricia Routledge that she and Hyacinth Bucket were made for each other.

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That character leapt from the page,

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and I said...later on to my agent,

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"If Roy Clarke wasn't writing this for me,

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"he ought to have been."

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A lot of the success of the series was down to the characterisation

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and the relationships between those characters.

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And Roy Clarke is brilliant at creating characters.

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I must say that the character of Hyacinth Bucket is...

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an absolute world-beater.

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It's up there with the extraordinary characters

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that somebody like Moliere creates,

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because the obsession is driven to the absolute, ultimate degree.

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I wanted your superiors to find out which cow my milk comes from.

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I will not have my bottles coming from just any old animal.

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We passed a very photogenic herd recently on the Earl of Crawford's estate.

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Would you please ensure that my two pints daily come from them.

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'Her pretensions were about everything.'

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She had ideas above her station, and that's always funny.

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The Bouque-e-et residence! The lady of the house speaking.

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In the search for the right name for Hyacinth, I always knew I wanted to play on Bucket and Bouquet

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because that seemed to me such a symbol of what she was on about anyway, what she was.

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My name is Bouquet.

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B-U-C-K-E-T.

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No, it's not Bucket. It's Bouquet.

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I've seen it done and heard it done by persons called Bottom, who insisted that it was "Bo-tome".

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It was very kind of you to invite us, Mrs Bucket.

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-It's Bouquet, Vicar.

-Oh, I'm sorry.

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It's of French origin.

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I believe my husband's family, in the distant past,

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were Hugenicks or something.

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Like every other cast member, her husband Richard was there as a foil for Hyacinth,

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a character expressly designed to show off her personality to the worst advantage.

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I wish you wouldn't raise your arms like that, Richard, not when you're overheated.

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-It's warm work, Hyacinth.

-If you have to perspire, I wish you'd go into the back garden,

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so you don't disturb people who respect us socially.

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The character of Richard was almost non-existent.

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Richard said, "You're wanted on the phone, dear,"

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and, "Yes, dear," and "No, dear."

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And that was about it.

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Do you know who passed by today?

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My goodness, is that a dead leaf?

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If I put together Roy Clarke's track record

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and Miss Routledge's track record and Harold Snoad's track record,

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I thought, "I can't say no to this because it could be a job for life."

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Frivolity?

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30 years married, I can't remember a single frivle.

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Like his leading lady, Clive Swift had a theatrical background,

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and was also prominent in the TV satire of the '60s, appearing in Dig This Rhubarb.

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# When I was single, my pockets did jingle

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# I wish I was single again

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# Again and again and again

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# Again and again and again

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# When I was single, my pockets did jingle

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# I wish I was single again. #

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After appearing in an episode of Roy Clarke's The Misfit,

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Clive Swift was regularly seen in costume dramas throughout the '70s and '80s,

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and first worked with Harold Snoad on The Further Adventures Of Lucky Jim in 1982.

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But one of his most acclaimed and telling performances

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was as Bishop Proudie in The Barchester Chronicles.

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So this is our palace.

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This is our palace.

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The place is falling to pieces.

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-Is it?

-Of course it is.

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And no doubt, the interior is even worse.

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I shall speak to Mr Slope.

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Clive Swift believes it was his bumbling bishop that brought him

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to Harold Snoad's mind when casting the hen-pecked Richard Bucket,

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sorry - Bouquet.

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The pairing of Swift and Routledge was a marriage made in heaven... and hell.

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Be firm, Richard.

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Don't be pushed around.

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Clive Swift brought to life the truth that everybody who was watching the series suspected -

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what an awful thing she must be to live with.

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To make that part believable,

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that a husband would stay with that woman,

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not be totally browbeaten, manage to keep his own character

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and make that believable - I thought that was really good acting.

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He made him into a slightly lazy person that she did everything for him and that was fine.

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She kept a good table.

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His shirts were ironed.

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He was always well turned out. That's what a lot of men like.

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They get used to it, so they put up with anything.

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As we all know, the secret of marriage is give and take,

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kindness, understanding,

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tolerance.

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At one point, I thought this marriage was so awkward

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that perhaps they had single beds.

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I don't like this level of intimacy, dear.

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I don't think it's natural at our age.

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Would you please remove yourself from my person.

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Other than that, there is never any,

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in inverted commas, sexual contact between them at all.

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Yet there must have been a brief moment when intimacy was on the agenda for Mr and Mrs Bucket.

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How else to explain their invisible son, Sheridan?

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Sheridan!

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How sensitive of you to call, dear.

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-What a close psychic link we have, you and I.

-What does he want?

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I don't know that he wants anything. He's just ringing his mother.

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You need how much, Sheridan?

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It's a super idea that you never, never see him, and of course you never should.

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Sheridan, you're not moving in with some designing female.

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Oh, it's not a girls' flat. It's a boys' flat.

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And you're making your own curtains? How inventive, dear.

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Then of course that he should turn out gay is perhaps not surprising.

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And again, designed of course to show Hyacinth being Hyacinth,

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that behind all the bluster and the snobbery is a total innocence.

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Oh, you and Tarquin aren't interested in girls.

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What a comfort that is to a mother's heart, dear.

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I thought Patricia played it wonderfully, in that she was so totally unaware of...

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A different actress might have played it more knowingly. Who knows?

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Hyacinth, do you ever wonder why Sheridan shows no interest in girls?

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D'you think I should take a few of my favourite ornaments?

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The character of Sheridan exemplifies a pet theory of mine,

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that you can get away with murder if you don't actually show it.

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But the cast found that Roy was even more elusive than Sheridan.

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The show's creator didn't like to attend rehearsals or recordings

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and in five series visited the set just once.

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Harold said you're all allowed to ask him one question.

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And I said, "Am I married?" And he said, "Oh, I don't know."

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"Oh, well, am I a single mother?" "Oh, I don't know. Yes, you can have a husband if you like."

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I said, "Well, is he away or or is he there?"

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"Well, he could be working in the oilfields, it doesn't matter. It's all right, I don't mind."

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I said, "Oh, right." I went away thinking, I'm still none the wiser.

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They're a very close couple.

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Of course they are close.

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She has him on a lead.

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Well, at least their marriage survives.

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My husband works abroad, you're divorced - who are we to criticise?

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Roy Clarke's remoteness from the day to day production of Keeping Up Appearances

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eventually led to serious creative differences between himself and Harold Snoad.

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I'm a writer and I'm nothing but a writer.

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When I submit a script,

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I've got no interest in producing it or directing it. I leave it to people.

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It's a great pity that Roy Clarke and I didn't see eye to eye

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in making Keeping Up Appearances.

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I watched on occasions and found scenes I hadn't written.

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That's of course death to a writer - you can't have it.

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That was the problem.

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Roy Clarke would never actually accept the fact that anything was wrong with his scripts.

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so when I found bits that didn't work, I had no alternative but to

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rewrite large chunks myself, with the blessing of the BBC.

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They were very happy.

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They just left it to me to get on with it.

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You will have to get out and push.

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-What?

-You will have to get out and push.

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Me?

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Well, there is no one else about!

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-But I've never pushed anything in my life.

-There's a first time for everything!

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The BBC brought in a script editor to act as peacemaker.

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It's a mark of Keeping Up Appearances' success

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that the Corporation worked so hard to overcome the writer and producer being at loggerheads.

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You'll pay for this, Richard Bucket!

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Bouquet!

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More than creative differences, there were differences in temperament between myself and Howard.

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I have warm feelings about Keeping Up Appearances despite any of the troubles that we had,

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which are par for the course in many a production anyway.

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And, um... at times, we weren't the best of mates over that,

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but the final analysis is that in the end, it did work extremely well.

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-Is there anything...?

-Just give me time to recover my composure, then come and take tea with me at 3.25.

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Josephine Tewson, Hyacinth's next door neighbour Elizabeth,

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was one of Harold Snoad's comedy favourites. She first worked with him on The Dick Emery Show.

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Oh, he played me a dirty trick, he did.

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Sir Thomas? What ever did he do, dear?.

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He deliberately gave me the wrong that date for a concert at the Albert Hall.

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I turned up there at eight o'clock,

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and by five past, I was in the ring, fighting for my life with Rocky Marciano.

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He cast her as the housekeeper alongside Ronnie Barker and David Jason in His Lordship Entertains.

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Then she moved upstairs playing Lady Cynthia in Elementary, My Dear Watson

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with John Cleese and Willie Rushton.

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Did I ever tell you the story of my first marriage? I was a young girl of 17.

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Well, 21.

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After Harold cast Josephine again in No Appointment Necessary,

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he felt there'd be great comedy chemistry if he moved her in next door to Hyacinth.

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PHONE RINGS

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Patricia Routledge has an excellent sense of farce

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which, when I put that together with Jo Tewson,

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who also is very farcially-inclined, the two of them were absolute magic.

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When Hyacinth is not watching,

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I can handle Royal Doulton as well as the next person.

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It is perfectly simple - you just take hold of it firmly but gently,

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you raise it carefully...

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'Roy Clarke had written Hyacinth off stage'

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calling Elizabeth and me rattling the cup and putting it down.

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I thought that is a bit tame after some of the things we've done.

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So I said to Pat, "How good are you at catching things, Pat?"

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She said, "Oh, yes, yes!"

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So, why can't I do it when Hyacinth is here?

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Elizabeth.

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While Roy Clarke created Elizabeth just to be intimidated by Hyacinth,

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her sisters Rose and Daisy and brother-in-law Onslow were designed to embarrass Hyacinth

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by reminding her of exactly where she came from.

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We were the slobs and Hyacinth, the snob.

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I'll be with you in a minute!

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Daisy, again another wonderful creation by Judy Cornwell,

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of a child bride with her hopes of romance.

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You are so attractive to women.

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I am work shy, bone idle and out of condition!

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-What makes you think I'm attractive to women?

-I married you, didn't I?

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I found this wonderful grey cardigan which was awful. It was out of shape,

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it was something you could sleep in or wrap round a dog.

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I said, "That's the one. That's the one I love."

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That's her cardigan - her favourite one.

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You won't find this in your romantic novels, but if you wear see-through nightie, don't wear a vest!

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I think one of my favourite characters in the show was Onslow.

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Geoffrey Hughes was marvellous as that Onslow.

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His relationship with his wife became very, very popular.

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He was designed to embarrass Hyacinth and couldn't have been more effective at it.

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Morning, Onslow.

0:21:410:21:43

Don't say good morning to him when I've just been savaged by his dog.

0:21:430:21:47

Less noise, you daft bitch.

0:21:470:21:49

And that goes for you as well, dog.

0:21:490:21:51

ONSLOW LAUGHS

0:21:510:21:53

In series two, Roy Clarke introduced David Griffin as the faint-hearted Emmet, Elizabeth's brother.

0:21:540:22:00

She's been singing at me, Liz.

0:22:000:22:02

He was someone for Hyacinth both to look up to and fondly imagine herself the social equal of.

0:22:020:22:09

-We are invited to a candlelight supper tonight.

-Well, that was inevitable.

0:22:090:22:14

He loved his music and he loved his job as a music teacher.

0:22:140:22:18

He was also running the local amateur operatics society.

0:22:180:22:22

If there was one thing that Hyacinth was aiming at,

0:22:220:22:27

it was being the leading light of the amateur operatics society.

0:22:270:22:32

SHE HUMS

0:22:320:22:34

SHE SINGS OPERA

0:22:340:22:37

He gave a wonderful extra lift to the series,

0:22:410:22:43

so that she had somebody she had to woo to get what she wanted.

0:22:430:22:48

She couldn't browbeat him into it.

0:22:480:22:50

I was caught hiding behind a screen or behind the bushes.

0:22:500:22:54

She'd never actually say I was trying to avoid her. It was because I was so shy.

0:22:540:22:59

-Was that Emmet?

-He must have forgotten something in the house.

0:22:590:23:02

No, dear.

0:23:030:23:05

I am afraid it's me.

0:23:050:23:08

I rather think I send his senses reeling.

0:23:110:23:16

Dear Emmet.

0:23:160:23:17

With Keeping Up Appearances steamrollering on its merry way,

0:23:170:23:22

Roy Clarke and Harold Snoad combined on another BBC sitcom

0:23:220:23:26

starring Tony Britton, Susan Hampshire and Caroline Quentin.

0:23:260:23:31

But Don't Tell Father just didn't have that special something.

0:23:310:23:35

-Where's Garth?

-Behind the sofa.

0:23:350:23:38

-What's he doing?

-Meditating.

0:23:380:23:41

Trying to remember his song.

0:23:410:23:43

That never totally took off.

0:23:460:23:49

But it was fun to do.

0:23:490:23:51

It's still not clear why some things happen and others don't.

0:23:510:23:56

If it doesn't hit that spot, you've not got a winner.

0:23:560:24:01

Oh, no doily!

0:24:010:24:03

Keeping Up Appearances clearly was a winner and if the BBC had its way, it might still be running today.

0:24:080:24:14

But in 1995, the show stopped dead in its tracks.

0:24:140:24:18

I know!

0:24:180:24:20

Emmet, you can play and we'll all sing sea shanties.

0:24:200:24:24

Keeping Up Appearances came to an end because Patricia,

0:24:270:24:31

to be perfectly frank, wanted to move on to do something else.

0:24:310:24:35

I decided to part company with Hyacinth because there were other adventures to have.

0:24:350:24:41

I'm an actor and I like to play other roles.

0:24:410:24:45

First on the list of adventures was a trip into Miss Marpleshire,

0:24:460:24:49

as Patricia Routledge swapped Hyacinth for Hetty Wainthrop, the sixty-something crime buster.

0:24:490:24:55

And in between regular returns to the theatre, she appeared on TV

0:24:550:25:00

in the second helping of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads.

0:25:000:25:04

She didn't want to simply end of her career by being known as Hyacinth Bucket.

0:25:040:25:09

She'd made it so much her own, obviously.

0:25:090:25:12

So, I take my hat off to her, in that respect.

0:25:120:25:16

I know that Harold was extremely disappointed because in a way,

0:25:160:25:20

to cut a thing off, in its prime almost.

0:25:200:25:24

I told you, they're going away.

0:25:240:25:28

But the other thing of course, is to go out on top, at one's peak.

0:25:280:25:33

That was quite a send-off.

0:25:330:25:37

We must never move, dear, we'd be greatly missed.

0:25:370:25:42

I don't think the other cast members were thrilled silly that they weren't going to do any more

0:25:420:25:48

because they all enjoyed it, they loved the parts and they obviously were glad to be part of a success.

0:25:480:25:54

But without the star, what could you do, really?

0:25:540:25:59

We all knew it could go on and we knew the BBC wanted it to go on.

0:25:590:26:04

But we knew Pat didn't want to do any more.

0:26:040:26:06

So everybody was sort of waiting to see what happened.

0:26:060:26:12

I think for a while they were hanging on,

0:26:120:26:16

hoping Patricia would change her mind and come back and do more.

0:26:160:26:22

They didn't want to tackle anything that might get in the way of that,

0:26:220:26:26

and then by the time it dawned that she was serious

0:26:260:26:30

and she wasn't coming back, it had become too late, I think.

0:26:300:26:35

Roy Clarke still had a few more drops of Summer Wine to squeeze out

0:26:350:26:38

and the show enjoyed a guest appearance from Josephine Tewson.

0:26:380:26:42

-He promised me marriage.

-I never said marriage!

0:26:420:26:47

I may have said "garage".

0:26:470:26:49

-Excuse us a minute.

-He's so strong when he's aroused!

0:26:500:26:54

I call him my Hercules!

0:26:540:26:57

Clive Swift starred in The Aristocrats

0:26:580:27:01

before going back into the Church in 2002 as Reverend Brewer in the BBC's Born And Bred.

0:27:010:27:07

-You have the look of the devil.

-The Lord moves in mysterious ways,

0:27:080:27:12

his wonders to perform.

0:27:120:27:14

Before appearing regularly in Heartbeat,

0:27:140:27:18

the nation's favourite slob, Geoffrey Hughes,

0:27:180:27:21

changed his vest but not much else to play Twiggy in The Royle Family.

0:27:210:27:25

Wash'n'Go - the ad where that bird washes and pisses off.

0:27:250:27:28

It's the genuine stuff, only it's got Arabic writing on it.

0:27:280:27:31

-50p a bottle.

-ALL: Nah.

-No, thanks.

-Oh, please yourself.

0:27:330:27:37

Go on then, Twiggy, I'll have two quid's worth.

0:27:370:27:40

I tell you what - as you're my best-looking customer,

0:27:400:27:44

-I'll chuck in a box of panty pads.

-All right.

0:27:440:27:47

Since finishing up in 1995,

0:27:470:27:50

Keeping Up Appearances has found a new audience abroad,

0:27:500:27:53

becoming an unexpected worldwide hit as it flies the flowery flag.

0:27:530:27:58

Are you playing the right note?

0:27:580:28:00

HE PLAYS THE SAME NOTE TWICE

0:28:000:28:03

SHE REPEATS THE SAME NOTES

0:28:030:28:06

I suppose Irving knew what he was doing.

0:28:060:28:08

It's huge in America at the moment

0:28:080:28:10

cos I think Americans think that Hyacinth is the typical British middle-class lady.

0:28:100:28:17

Then you have Israel loving it, India loving it, China loving it.

0:28:170:28:21

I believe it sold in over 45 countries.

0:28:210:28:23

I'm very big in Botswana, you know.

0:28:230:28:26

I love saying that.

0:28:260:28:28

# ..To battle With someone's herd of... #

0:28:280:28:32

Keep it going! Faster!

0:28:320:28:34

# ..Was done

0:28:340:28:36

# Then if I shot the herder they'd holler bloody murder... #

0:28:360:28:40

You said he'd been certificated.

0:28:440:28:46

No! No! No!

0:28:480:28:51

Enough! That's it!

0:28:510:28:54

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