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Dame Pat Routledge, who passed away at the age of 96, etched her presence on the national psyche as the snobby Mrs. Bouquet.

Declaring it was "said Bouquet," the character trampled over her long-suffering husband and confused neighbours in Keeping Up Appearances, one of Britain's most successful sitcoms in the 1990s.

Acting like a aristocrat while living in a suburban area, Bucket's over-the-top status-seeking schemes were in the end destined to collapse—while she struggled to maintain her dignity.

It was Lady Routledge's most famous role in a career that saw her win stage honors on both sides of the Atlantic, become the star of the playwright's famous TV soliloquies, and become BBC1's crime-busting Mrs. Wainthropp.

Formative Years and Start in Acting

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

Her dad was a clothier and she remembered taking cover from enemy bombs in the cellar of his store throughout the Second World War.

She majored in English at nearby Liverpool University and planned to become a teacher. Instead, she joined the Liverpool Playhouse before studying at the Bristol drama school.

Her prosperous stage journey took her from the regions to the West End, and eventually to Broadway, where Leonard Bernstein selected her to star in his musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 1976.

She had already received a Tony honor for her performance in Darling of the Day.

She could move smoothly from comedies to classics.

She progressed from Stratford-upon-Avon, appearing with the RSC and later to the London's national stage in the capital.

At the National, her starring part in the theatre production Carousel featured her performing the rousing You'll Never Walk Alone.

There were also various minor movie parts, especially in the 1967 film To Sir, With Love, and the comedian's comedy outing Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River.

Her stage and radio performances demonstrated her range and won her awards, but it was television that gave Routledge with her best-known characters.

TV Success and Iconic Characters

Early television appearances featured well-liked programmes like Z Cars and Steptoe and Son.

Subsequently, one of Britain's most respected writers, the dramatist, wrote a set of remarkable Talking Heads TV solos for her.

Routledge conquered her initial reluctance to act his material and shone as A Woman of No Importance and A Lady of Letters.

She later portray a lonely, middle-aged department store assistant tipped into a affair with a kinky foot doctor in Bennett's Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet.

A comic turn as the larger-than-life character on The Victoria Wood Show led to the development of Hyacinth Bucket.

Routledge remembered being given the episodes by the author, the screenwriter—known for Last of the Summer Wine and Open All Hours.

"I had opened the pages for a while at one o'clock in the night," she recalled, "I went straight through and Hyacinth jumped off the page. I knew that lady, I knew a few of that type."

Keeping Up Appearances ran for five seasons and featured several Christmas episodes.

In a documentary, she later claimed that admirers had numbered Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and the pontiff.

It turned into BBC Worldwide's most exported programme ever and meant Routledge was known as far away as Botswana.

For her work on the sitcom, she was voted Britain's all-time favourite actress in 1996, but after five years in the role, she decided it was time for a change.

"I brought it to an end," she explained, "which, naturally, the BBC wasn't pleased with at all."

She believed that Roy Clarke was beginning to repeat concepts and mentioned a bit of advice from the comedian, the comic.

"He always left with audiences asking, ‘Oh, aren’t you doing any more?’ she recalled, rather than people remarking, ‘Is that still running?’"

Later Roles and Personal Life

Portraying the homely but astute sleuth in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates gave her ongoing popularity on TV, but she consistently called the theatre as "the test."

Long after she stopped acting regularly on screen, Routledge made theatre tours both in the UK and abroad.

If interviewers posed the inevitable question, she requested them to write the word withdrawal because, she clarified: "It isn't in my vocabulary."

She never married or had children, but informed interviewers of a couple of great affairs in her younger days, including one with a married man.

"I experienced remorse and an sharp sense that there had to be loss," she confessed. "I guess I persuaded myself that it was all right for the moment because his marriage was not a vibrant relationship."

In place of family, she devoted herself to her art, honoring it with the skill, dedication and devotion that were always respected by her peers.

She was critical about the BBC's choice in 2016 to revive Keeping Up Appearances, but this time set in the 1950s and featuring a more youthful incarnation of her character.

Questioning the network's policy of resurrecting old sitcoms she remarked, "Why are they doing this sort of project, they must be desperate."

She had previously clashed with the broadcaster over their decision not to order a film she had written about the writer Beatrix Potter (Routledge was a supporter of the literary group), which finally broadcast on another network.

Upon reaching 90, she continued to live quietly in Chichester, where she busied herself raising money for the cathedral roof.

In 2017, she became a Dame of the British honors system but—in contrast to her character—titles did not affect her mind.

Dame Routledge always said she thanked her north of England upbringing and stable background for providing her good sense with her life and her money.

Even so, she admitted that, should any extra cash arrive, she'd definitely use it on "several bottles of champagne"—an appreciation of the finer things in life that she shared with her best-remembered character.

"I was never stage-struck," she declared. "I am not theatre-obsessed now. No one is more surprised than I am that I have, actually, devoted my life pursuing this."