Hyacinth Bucket

Hyacinth Bucket (née Walton) is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom Keeping Up Appearances, portrayed by Patricia Routledge. Routledge won a British Comedy Award in 1991, and was nominated for two BAFTA awards in 1992 and 1993 for her portrayal. Character synopsis Hyacinth is a social-climbing snob who constantly aims to impress people, particularly of the upper and upper-middle classes, and to give the impression that she is of high social standing, despite her modest status. This is epitomised in her insistence on pronouncing her surname as "Bouquet". She has an "acquired cultured accent which buckles under stress." The character's creator, Roy Clarke, has called her the "least invented of all the characters I've found in my head": So I knew my Hyacinths and I knew I had to write my own. They fascinated me. They were hilarious in their pretensions, so marvellously unaware of the real impressions they were making, and yet somehow so up front in their crusade to be superior that it was brave. Hyacinth is married to Richard Bucket, and they live at 22 Blossom Avenue, in a bungalow which Hyacinth refers to as "The Residence" when sending letters. In an attempt to make callers think she is wealthy enough to employ domestic staff, she repeatedly answers the telephone with, "The Bouquet residence; the lady of the house speaking." This false accent had previously been used for Edie Pegden in Last of the Summer Wine, another series written by Clarke.