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Poor Richard Bucket. You know what he thinks of his home life right at the start of the series. Now old enough to retire, the long-suffering husband of the woman who makes such a show of her "Royal Doulton with the hand-painted periwinkles" would get on his knees and clean the carpets in his old workplace if it meant he could spend more time away from Hyacinth.
Hyacinth Bucket ("that's Bouquet . . . B-U-C-K-E-T") is a woman possessed. She'll stop at nothing to propel herself up the social ladder. She'll spend the weekend in a country cottage that isn't big enough to turn around in if it makes her look a bit more upwardly mobile. What with the unseen Sheridan constantly on the phone for more money that his father can't afford to give him or bothering Elizabeth next door to join her for coffee in ten minutes, Hyacinth certainly has her life worked out. And everyone else's, for that matter.
What I particularly like is everything that holds Hyacinth back. Her sister Violet has a swimming pool, sauna and room for a pony (I've seen Keeping Up Appearances so many times I can rattle that one off without thinking) and a cross-dressing husband named Bruce. Her other sister Rose is possibly two steps away from being a prostitute - she's always got at least three men on the go and doesn't know what to do with any of them - and lives in what Hyacinth would consider squalor with the fourth sister, Daisy, and Daisy's carefree slob of a husband Onslow. I always love it when Daisy tries to get a bit romantic with Onslow and he just thinks she's mad.
At least Violet and Bruce, and Daisy and Rose and Onslow have the compensation of living far away from Hyacinth. Poor Elizabeth next door has had her nerves shattered by Hyacinth's glass-shattering voice (which has often led poor Liz to shatter several dozen pieces of Hyacinth's crockery) and her brother Emmet vents his frustration out on his piano. One wonderful scene when Hyacinth volunteers to help at the church hall sees Richard, Onslow, Emmet and Michael the Vicar hiding in the basement in the dark as they try to fix the electrics. Everyone needs a place to hide from Hyacinth.
score 9/10
IridescentTranquility 13 February 2006
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1291145/ |
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18-10-2020 11:51:14