[.ca] Keeping Up Appearances - The Full Bouquet Set (Vols. 1-8)

Coffee @ 11 Elizabeth!:
Do yourself a favor and get the entire set. Patricia Routledge is simply brillant and a worthy contender of the UK's "Queen of comedy." Roy Clarke's writing, Harlod Snoad's production, and an amazing cast make this an all time great.

That's Boo-kay:
Why is it that the best British sitcoms have incredibly annoying lead characters? First, there was John Cleese as a mad hotelier. Now, there is Patricia Routledge, as a social-climber with affected manners and a piercing voice. And with the aid of talented supporting actors and some gloriously madcap scripts, this sitcom becomes almost pure comic bliss. Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced "Bouquet") is the local social climber, and a terror to all who know her -- she views herself as the doyenne of good taste, artistry, morals, decorum, and class, and her perpetually in-debt son Sheridan as being the next Einstein. She kisses up to the wealthy and aristocratic, and anyone who is closely associated with them, unaware of how much her self-promotion scares them. Her weary husband Richard (Clive Swift) and nervy neighbor Elizabeth (Josephine Tewson) dread whatever she has next. She adores her sister Violet, who married a wealthy transvestite and has "a swimming pool, Mercedes, and room for a pony." But she'll do anything to hide her impoverished family members: her wacked-out father, sloppy romantic Daisy (Judy Cornwell) and skanky Rose (Mary Millar), who has a new boyfriend for every episode. Not to mention Daisy's couch potato hubby Onslow (Geoffrey Hughes). The series opens with Hyacinth trying to hide the fact that "dear Daddy" was hurt while bicycling naked after the milk lady. From there on, she must tackle dozens of other problems: athlete's foot, mad cruises on the QE2 (with Onslow and Daisy), inadvertant theft of a Rolls Royce, riverside picnics gone awry, suicide attempts, Richard's ill-fated stint as a filmmaker, Christmas kisses, and Rose's decision to become a nun in a miniskirt. "It's all right," she announces as she drunkenly smooches the vicar. "I'm going to be a nun!" Sure, there are some dud episodes -- the amusement park one with all the old people is full of one-note jokes. Sorry, but old ladies throwing up is not funny more than once. Most of the time, however, the writing is spot-on, from Rose's affairs with married men ("You swore you'd be faithful... and then... I catch you sneaking back to your wife!") to Hyacinth's efforts to hide her family. Routledge is the star of this series, no doubt about it -- she makes Hyacinth a magnificently awful character. Not only is she frighteningly annoying, but she's also unaware of how other people see her. Swift is a great counterpoint, as the weary husband who has stopping trying to fight Hyacinth's social climbing. Social appearances, family and madcap misunderstandings are the heart of "Keeping Up Appearances." Snobbery has never been so funny.

THE BUCKET WOMAN!:
She is the kind of woman that we love to hate! The hole cast is brilliant, Patricia Routledge is marvelous!