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Lady Patricia Routledge, who has died at the age of 96, made her mark on the British consciousness as the pretentious Mrs. Bucket.

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

Acting like a aristocrat while living in a suburb, Hyacinth's over-the-top social-climbing plans were ultimately destined to collapse—while she struggled to maintain her dignity.

It was Lady Patricia's most famous part in a professional life that included her earn theatrical honors on both sides of the ocean, become the star of Alan Bennett's famous TV monologues, and star as BBC1's crime-busting Hetty Wainthropp.

Early Life and Career Beginnings

Catherine Pat Routledge was delivered in Birkenhead on February 17 1929.

Her dad was a haberdasher and she remembered sheltering from German bombs in the cellar of his shop throughout the Second World War.

She majored in English at nearby the University of Liverpool and intended to teach. Rather, she entered the local theatre before training at the Bristol Old Vic.

Her prosperous acting career brought her from the provinces to the West End, and finally to New York, where the composer selected her to appear in his musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 1976.

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

She could transition effortlessly from comedies to serious drama.

She went from Stratford-upon-Avon, appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company and later to the National Theatre in London.

At the National, her starring role in the stage musical Carousel featured her singing the inspiring You'll Never Walk Alone.

She also took several supporting movie parts, notably in 1967's To Sir, With Love, and the comedian's funny film Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River.

Her theatre and broadcast performances demonstrated her range and earned her awards, but it was television that gave Routledge with her most high profile roles.

Television Success and Memorable Characters

Early television work featured well-liked shows like Z Cars and Steptoe and Son.

Subsequently, among Britain's most respected writers, the dramatist, wrote a series 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 went onto portray a isolated, middle-aged department store clerk tipped into a affair with a unconventional podiatrist in Bennett's Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet.

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

Routledge recalled being sent the scripts 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 one o'clock in the morning," she said, "I read straight through and Hyacinth leapt off the script. I knew that lady, I knew a few of that type."

Keeping Up Appearances aired for five series and featured four holiday episodes.

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

It turned into the broadcaster's most-sold programme of all time and ensured Routledge was known as far away as Africa.

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

"I decided to end it to an end," she said, "and, naturally, the BBC wasn't pleased with at all."

She thought that Roy Clarke was starting to recycle concepts and recalled a bit of advice from the performer, Ronnie Barker.

"He made sure to finish with audiences asking, ‘Oh, aren’t you doing any more?’ she recalled, rather than fans saying, ‘Is that still on?’"

Later Work and Private Life

Portraying the homely but sharp sleuth in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates gave her ongoing popularity on TV, but she always called the stage as "the real challenge."

Long after she ceased acting frequently on television, Routledge made theatre tours both in the United Kingdom and abroad.

If journalists asked the predictable inquiry, she asked them to write the word retirement because, she explained: "It isn't in my lexicon."

She did not wed or had children, but told interviewers of a couple of significant romances in her younger days, including one with a married man.

"I felt remorse and an acute sense that there would be loss," she admitted. "I suppose I persuaded myself that it was acceptable for the moment as his marriage was not a vibrant relationship."

In place of family, she dedicated herself to her art, serving it with the talent, dedication and commitment that were always respected by her peers.

She was critical about the broadcaster's decision in 2016 to revive Keeping Up Appearances, but this time placed in the 1950s and starring a more youthful incarnation of her character.

Challenging the Corporation's approach of resurrecting old comedies she said, "For what reason are they attempting this kind of project, they must be desperate."

She had previously clashed with the broadcaster over their move not to commission a documentary she had written about the author Beatrix Potter (Routledge was a supporter of the literary group), which eventually aired on another network.

On turning 90, she persisted to reside quietly in Chichester, where she occupied herself collecting money for the church structure.

In 2017, she was appointed a Dame of the British honors system but—in contrast to Hyacinth—titles did not go to her head.

Lady Patricia always said she credited her north of England roots and stable background for providing her practicality with her life and her money.

Nonetheless, she confessed that, should any additional money come her way, she'd definitely use it on "several bottles of sparkling wine"—an appreciation of the finer things in life that she had in common with her best-remembered character.

"I never was theatre-obsessed," she declared. "I'm not theatre-obsessed now. No one is more surprised than I am that I have, in fact, devoted my life doing acting."