Dame Katherine Patricia Routledge was born on the 17th of February 1929 in Tranmere, Birkenhead, Cheshire. Her father was a haberdasher and during the Second World War the family would live in the shop’s basement for weeks at a time especially during the Liverpool Blitz.
She graduated from Birkenhead High Girls Public Day School Trust, where she also sang in the choir and ran the Sunday School. She then graduated with honours in English Language and Literature from Liverpool University where she got involved in the university’s dramatic society and after graduation, she worked without pay at the Liverpool Playhouse where she was asked to join the company. Moving from the Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol she moved to London, where she built an impressive stage career over the next several years, also appearing on Broadway 1966-1968.
Her early television appearances included ‘Coronation Street’ as cafe owner Sylvia Snape in 1961 and as a local faith healer or ‘White Witch’ in ‘Doctor At Large’ in 1971 plus a role in ‘Steptoe and Son’ in 1974 in the episode ‘Seance in a Wet Rag and Bone Yard’ as a clairvoyant called Madame Fontana. It was not until the 1980s, when she featured in monologues written for her by Alan Bennett and later as the opinionated ‘Kitty’ in ‘Victoria Wood As Seen On TV’, that she came to prominence.on television. She was nominated for a British Academy Award for Best Actress for the monologue ‘A Lady Of Letters’
 |
| “The Bouquet residence! The lady of the house speaking!” |
In 1990 Patricia was cast as Hyacinth Bucket in the now acclaimed comedy sitcom series ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ with social-climbing snob Hyacinth Bucket and her long-suffering husband Richard, played by Clive Swift. She portrayed a formerly working-class woman with social pretensions (insisting her surname be pronounced “bouquet”) and delusions of grandeur. She was delighted in portraying Hyacinth, as she claimed she couldn’t stand people like her in real life. She has said, “The basic premise of Hyacinth is pretension and that’s the source of so much comedy. While attempting to be a social climber, she also had to deal with members from the other side of her family like Onslow, ( Geoffrey Hughes), who sat around in his string vest drinking beer. In a way, the show was a microcosm for society.” Hyacinth goes to great lengths to avoid her family, saying to her husband, “Richard, you know I love my family, but that’s no reason why I should have to acknowledge them in broad daylight!”
Patricia didn’t just recite the script’s funny lines, but made a million twitches and smirks that make Hyacinth look like such a snob.
 |
| Receiving he O.B.E. |
In 1991, she won a British Comedy Award for her portrayal of Hyacinth Bucket and was later nominated for two BAFTA TV Awards in 1992 and 1993. In 1992, she was voted BBC Television Personality of the Year, and, a year later, she was awarded the OBE. The show comprised five series and 44 episodes, four of which are Christmas specials but the series ended at Routledge’s request in 1995 despite its ongoing popularity as she wished to pursue other roles as a character actress. During the 60th anniversary awards for the BBC, she was also voted by viewers as Britain’s favourite actress. ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ is considered to be one of the BBC’s greatest sitcoms of the 90s and the most profitable one given it’s foreign sales, etc.
During an interview on Australian TV Patricia stated: “I’d much rather people look back and say ‘I remember that’ than say ‘Oh, is that still on?'” Another reason she wished the series to end was that she felt that the writer Roy Clarke was rewriting old scripts.
She also starred as Hetty Wainthropp in the British television series ‘Hetty Wainthropp Investigates’ in 1989 and the from 1996 to 1998.
Her extensive radio credits include several Alan Bennett plays and the BBC dramatisation of Carole Hayman’s ‘Ladies of Letters’ in which she and Prunella Scales play retired women exchanging humorous correspondence over the course of several years.
A lesser well known fact is that Patricia trained not only as an actress but also as a singer and had considerable experience and success in musical theatre, both in this country and in the USA.
She has also said, “When I approach the pearly gates, I’d like to hear a champagne cork popping, an orchestra tuning up, and the sound of my mother laughing.”
