KEEPING UP APPEARANCES Hyacinth Bucket SIGNED!!! Start Price GBP 99.95 Current Price GBP 99.95 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Thursday, September 04, 2008 End Time Sunday, September 14, 2008 Location New Romney See more about 'KEEPING UP APPEARANCES Hyacinth Bucket SIGNED!!!' Description   Item: KEEPING UP APPEARANCES - HYACINTH BUCKET'S BOOK OF ETIQUETTE for the Socially Less Fortunate.   Signed by HYACINTH BUCKET aka PATRICIA ROUTLEDGE.   190+ page (24cm x 16cm) hardback book published by BBC Books 1993.   Content: This is a 1993 signed edition of Keeping Up Appearances - Hyacinth Bucket's Book of Etiquette for the Socially Less Fortunate.    Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced "bouquet"), star of BBC1's Keeping Up Appearances, imparts her personal views on protecting one's social standing.   Chapters: Preface. Etiquette in the Home. Family, Relations and Friends. Improving the Mind. The Perfect Hostess. Social Obligations. A healthy Mind in a Healthy Body. Index. Illustrated throughout with decorative page borders (floral bouquet's) & photographs.   Keeping Up Appearances is a British sitcom starring Patricia Routledge as eccentric, social-climbing snob Hyacinth Bucket. It aired on BBC1 from 1990 to 1995. The series was written by Roy Clarke, who also wrote Last of the Summer Wine and Open All Hours. In 2004, it came 12th in the Britain's Best Sitcom poll. Hyacinth Bucket, who insists her last name is pronounced "bouquet", spends much of her time trying to impress her neighbours and friends. She does this through boasting about her wealthy sister Violet, and by pretending to be of a more "aristocratic" class than she actually is. However, it is Hyacinth's lower-class relatives — Daisy, Rose and Onslow — who fail to fall in line with her standards, and thus she goes to great effort in keeping them hidden in order to save face. Hyacinth lives in a suburban bungalow on Blossom Avenue. A middle-aged, house-proud housewife, she will answer the phone with the greeting: "The Bouquet residence, the lady of the house speaking", and from her shining Kitchen to the well-polished wood-block, her home is a paragon of perfection. She is constantly warning her visitors not to brush up against the walls and tells them to remove their shoes on arrival. Her long-suffering and hen-pecked husband is Richard, who initially works for the local council; later in the series however, he reluctantly takes early retirement. Richard often tries in vain to stop Hyacinth in her snobbish endeavours, but she never listens to him nor anyone else. He regularly gets dragged into assisting his wife in her numerous schemes attempts at climbing the social ladder, despite a reluctance to do so. The couple have an unseen son, Sheridan, who makes frequent phone calls from his polytechnic (one which Hyacinth claims is "of university standard") asking for money. There are strong suggestions that Sheridan is homosexual. Although Hyacinth seems unaware of this, Richard appears to know. Hyacinth has three sisters: Daisy, Rose and Violet. The lustful Daisy is married to the unromantic slob, Onslow, and the pair have a daughter called Stephanie. Neither Daisy nor Onslow work. Instead they spend their time lounging about in the sitting room, where Onslow drinks beer, eats crisps and watches television, and Daisy reads romantic novels; these being her last hopes of romance. The pair live with the promiscuous Rose and their senile father, who is referred to as "Daddy". Rose has a brief job in series four, selling custom-made jewellery door-to-door. She spends most of her time chasing married men and Hyacinth’s neighbour Emmett, along with the local vicar. Meanwhile "Daddy" chases elderly women and frequently believes he is back in World War II, which he fought in. Daisy, Rose, Onslow and their father together live in squalor; their home is a three-bedroom house on a run-down council estate. An abandoned car, lived in by Onslow's dog, occupies the front garden. Despite Hyacinth's desire for a more "upper-crust" family, she loves her relatives, and never fails to rush to their assistance when they are in need of her help. Often it is Daddy that has gotten into an embarrassing situation, which Hyacinth has to always solve. Hyacinth’s other sister, Violet, is rarely seen but is often boasted about by Hyacinth to the neighbours, referred to as "the one with the Mercedes, sauna and room for a pony". Violet is unhappily married to the cross-dressing bookmaker Bruce. Hyacinth's next-door neighbour is Elizabeth Warden, the closest witness to her snobbery. Frequently invited round to the Bucket residence for coffee, Elizabeth's nerves often cause her to spill it. Her husband is away working in Saudi Arabia. Elizabeth’s brother Emmett, who abbreviates his sister's name to "Liz", arrives in series two to live with her after his messy divorce. Emmett runs a local amateur operatic society, and Hyacinth frequently drops hints, by singing, that he should include her in his performances. Emmett quickly develops a fear of Hyacinth as a result of her excessive vocal exercises, to such an extent that he barely leaves the house. Hyacinth, however, is under the impression that this is because Emmett is attracted to her. The only character who is attracted to Hyacinth is the excitable Major, who recurs in the first two series. Cast: Patricia Routledge — Hyacinth Bucket Clive Swift — Richard Bucket Judy Cornwell — Daisy Geoffrey Hughes — Onslow Shirley Stelfox — Rose (series 1) Mary Millar — Rose (from series 2) Josephine Tewson — Elizabeth Warden David Griffin — Emmet Hawksworth (from series 2) George Webb — "Daddy" Anna Dawson — Violet (from series 3) John Evitts — Bruce (from series 3) Jeremy Gittins — Michael, the Vicar Marion Barron — Vicar's wife Peter Cellier — The Major (series 1 and 2) David Janson — Michael, the Postman Robert Rawles — The Milkman Katherine Patricia Routledge, CBE, (born 17 February 1929) is an English actress and singer. She is probably best known for her role as Hyacinth Bucket in the British sitcom Keeping up Appearances. Routledge was born in Birkenhead. She was educated at Birkenhead High School, an independent girls' school, and the University of Liverpool. She trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and launched her acting career at the Liverpool Playhouse. Routledge has had a prolific career in theatre, particularly musical theatre, in the UK and the US. Her West End credits include Little Mary Sunshine, Cowardy Custard, Virtue in Danger, Noises Off, The Importance of Being Earnest, and The Solid Gold Cadillac, as well as a number of less successful vehicles. Routledge made her Broadway debut in the short-lived 1968 musical Darling of the Day, for which she won a Tony Award as Best Actress in a Musical, sharing the honour with Leslie Uggams of Hallelujah, Baby!. Following Darling of the Day, Routledge had roles in several more unsuccessful Broadway productions, including a musical called Love Match, in which she played Queen Victoria; the legendary 1976 Leonard Bernstein flop, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, in which she portrayed every First Lady from Abigail Adams to Eleanor Roosevelt; and a 1981 musical called Say Hello to Harvey, based on the Mary Coyle Chase play Harvey, which closed in Toronto before reaching New York. In 1980, Routledge played Ruth in the Joseph Papp production of The Pirates of Penzance co-starring American actor Kevin Kline and Pop vocalist Linda Ronstadt, at the Delacorte Theatre in New York City's Central Park, one of the series of Shakespeare in the Park summer events. The show was a hit and transferred to Broadway the following January, but Estelle Parsons replaced Routledge. She played the role of Nettie Fowler to great acclaim in the 1993 London production of Carousel. In a 2006 Hampstead Theatre production of The Best of Friends, based on a book by Hugh Whitemore, she portrayed Dame Laurentia McLachlan, OSB. The play focused on her friendships with Sir Sydney Cockerell and George Bernard Shaw. Routledge's screen credits include To Sir, with Love, The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom, and Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River. Routledge's early television appearances included roles in Coronation Street and the "Seance in a Wet Rag and Bone Yard" episode of Steptoe and Son (1974). However she did not come to prominence on television until she featured in monologues written for her by Alan Bennett and Victoria Wood in the 1980's. She firstly appeared in Alan Bennett's A Woman of No Importance in 1982, and then as the opinionated Kitty in Victoria Wood As Seen On TV in 1985. She performed two further monologues in Bennett's Talking Heads in 1987 and 1998. In 1990, Routledge landed the high-profile role of Hyacinth Bucket in the comedy series Keeping Up Appearances. She portrayed a former working-class woman with social pretensions (insisting her surname be pronounced "bouquet") and visions of grandeur (her often-mentioned but never-seen "candlelight suppers"). She was nominated for two BAFTA TV Awards in 1992 and 1993. The series ended at Routledge's request in 1995. In 1996, Routledge accepted the lead in another long-running series, the mystery drama Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, which co-starred rising star Dominic Monaghan as her assistant. She has also played several real-life characters on television, including Barbara Pym and Hildegard of Bingen. In 2001, Routledge starred in Anybody's Nightmare, a fact-based television drama in which she played a piano teacher who served four years in prison for murdering her elderly aunt but was acquitted following a retrial. Her radio credits include the BBC dramatisation of Carole Hayman's Ladies of Letters, in which she and Prunella Scales play elderly women who exchange humorous correspondence over the course of several years. She was appointed OBE in 1993, and CBE in 2004. Condition: Dust-jacket mint condition (inside removable protective sleeve). Hardback near mint condition. Pages near mint condition; very small ink name top first blank page, page faces very clean & bright.   Additional photographs available upon request.   Collectable Signed Edition!!!      SHIPPING INSURANCE All books are insured during shipping for their purchase value up to a maximum of UK £34.00 This insurance excludes postage & packaging costs. Additional cover available upon request.       Add me to your favourites list!   Check out my other items!   &    My eBay Shop     Powered by eBay Turbo Lister Place a Bid!