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Patricia Routledge: No Importance
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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.
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Patricia is well known for her work in her good friend, Alan Bennett's plays, A Woman of No Importance (1982) and A Lady of Letters (1988), both of which he wrote especially for her. Her one-woman show Come for the Ride premiered in her hometown of Birkenhead in 1988 and has played in venues throughout the UK. Also in 1988, Patricia played the Old Lady in Jonathan Miller's production of Bernstein's Candide, for which she won an Olivier Award. She had first worked with Bernstein in 1976, playing the presidents' wives in Alan Lerner's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on Broadway. Bernstein wrote the solos especially for her, the very moving 'Take Care of This House' and the tour de force 'Duet for One'. In 1992, she played Nettie Fowler in Nicholas Hytner's revival of Carousel at the National Theatre and in 1994 she played the definitive Mrs Malaprop in Sheridan's The Rivals at the Chichester Festival Theatre, transferring to the West End. Her most recent theatrical role was as Beatrix Potter in the one-woman show, Beatrix.
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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 1980s. 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.
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Patricia finally moved out of her childhood bedroom at the age of 23 when she went to Bristol to attend the Old Vic Theatre School. She left behind not only her family but her wonderful singing teacher, Elizabeth Sleigh of Birkenhead, of whom Leonard Bernstein would some 20 years later say, "She did a good job!" She made her London debut in 1954 when she played Carlotta in Sheridan's The Duenna at the Westminster Theatre. She was only 28 and appearing at London's Saville Theatre in Zuleika when her mother died of a sudden heart attack. Patricia was very close to her family, especially her mother, and speaks with great affection of her parents and with gratitude for her loving and happy childhood. She draws constantly off her memories, saying, "You can cope if you know that as far back as you remember you were cherished."
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Like Dame Laurentia, Routledge, who never married, lives alone and has previously said she enjoys her own company, is clearly made of stern stuff. She was not one to fall apart when forced into quiet contemplation away from modern diversions.
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