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Lady Pat Routledge, who has died at the age of 96, etched her presence on the national consciousness as the pretentious Hyacinth Bouquet.

Declaring it was "pronounced Bouquet," the character trampled over her patient husband and confused neighbours in Keeping Up Appearances, among Britain's most successful comedies in the 1990s.

Acting like a aristocrat while living in a suburb, Hyacinth's over-the-top status-seeking schemes were ultimately destined to failure—while she struggled to maintain her composure.

It was Lady Routledge's best-known part in a career that included her earn stage awards on each side of the Atlantic, emerge as the lead of the playwright's famous TV soliloquies, and star as BBC1's investigative Mrs. Wainthropp.

Early Life and Career Beginnings

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

Her dad was a haberdasher and she remembered taking cover from enemy air raids in the basement of his store during the Second World War.

She studied English at nearby the University of Liverpool and intended to become a teacher. Instead, she joined the local theatre before training at the Bristol drama school.

Her prosperous acting career brought her from the regions to the London theatre district, and eventually to New York, where the composer chose her to star in his stage production 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 1976.

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

She could move smoothly from comedies to classics.

She went from Stratford-upon-Avon, appearing with the RSC and then to the National Theatre in London.

There, her lead part in the theatre production Carousel involved her singing the inspiring You'll Never Walk Alone.

She also took several supporting film roles, notably in the 1967 film To Sir, With Love, and the Jerry Lewis funny film Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River.

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

TV Breakthrough and Memorable Characters

Early small-screen work included popular programmes like Z Cars and Steptoe and Son.

And later, one of Britain's esteemed playwrights, Alan Bennett, penned a series of remarkable Talking Heads TV monologues for her.

Routledge overcame her early reluctance to act his scripts and excelled as A Woman of No Importance and A Lady of Letters.

She went onto play a lonely, middle-aged department store clerk drawn into a affair with a kinky podiatrist in Bennett's Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet.

A comic performance as the exaggerated character on The Victoria Wood Show led to the development of Mrs. Bucket.

Routledge remembered being given the episodes by the author, Roy Clarke—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 the character jumped off the page. I knew that woman, I knew a few of that type."

Keeping Up Appearances ran for five seasons and included four Christmas specials.

In a film, she later claimed that admirers had included the royal family and the pontiff.

It became BBC Worldwide's most-sold programme of all time and meant Routledge was recognised as far away as Botswana.

For her work on the sitcom, she was chosen the UK's all-time favourite actress in 1996, but following five years in the part, she decided it was the moment for a new direction.

"I brought it to an end," she explained, "and, naturally, the broadcaster wasn't pleased with very much."

She thought that Roy Clarke was beginning to repeat concepts and mentioned a piece of guidance from the comedian, the comic.

"He made sure to finish with audiences saying, ‘Oh, won't you do any more?’ she recalled, rather than people saying, ‘Is that still running?’"

Later Work and Personal Life

Portraying the unassuming but sharp sleuth in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates gave her continued success on TV, but she always referred to the theatre as "the test."

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

If interviewers asked the predictable inquiry, she asked them to write the word withdrawal since, she explained: "It's not in my lexicon."

She never married or had children, but informed interviewers of two great affairs in her youth, one with a married man.

"I experienced remorse and an acute feeling that there had to be loss," she admitted. "I suppose I convinced myself that it was acceptable for the time being because his marriage was no a living thing."

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

She was scathing about the broadcaster's decision in 2016 to bring back Keeping Up Appearances, but this time placed in the 1950s and starring a younger version of her character.

Questioning the network's approach of resurrecting classic comedies she said, "For what reason are they doing this sort of project, they must be desperate."

She had already disagreed with the broadcaster over its move to not commission a documentary she had written about the writer Beatrix Potter (she was a supporter of the literary group), which finally aired on Channel 4.

On turning 90, she persisted to live peacefully in Chichester, where she busied herself raising money for the church structure.

In 2017, she was appointed a Dame of the Order of the British Empire but—in contrast to her character—titles never affect her head.

Dame Routledge often said she thanked her north of England upbringing and stable background for giving her good sense with her time and her finances.

Even so, she confessed that, should any extra money come her way, she'd certainly use it on "a case of champagne"—an love of the better things in life that she shared with her best-remembered creation.

"I never was theatre-obsessed," she said. "I'm not stage-struck today. No one is as amazed than myself that I've, in fact, devoted my career doing acting."