Patricia Routledge
Dame Katherine Patricia Routledge was an English actress and singer. She was best known for her role as Hyacinth Bucket in the BBC One comedy series Keeping Up Appearances, for which she was twice nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance.
Routledge made her professional stage debut at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1952, and her West End debut in 1959. She made her Broadway debut in 1966, and won the 1968 Tony [Award for Best Actress in a Musical] for her role in Darling of the Day. She won the 1988 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for Candide at The Old Vic. Her film appearances include To Sir, with Love and Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River.
Routledge came to prominence during the 1980s in television monologues written by Alan Bennett and Victoria Wood, appearing in Bennett's A Woman of No Importance and as Kitty in Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV, and being nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for Bennett's Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters. She also starred as Hetty Wainthropp in the television series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. Routledge was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services to theatre and charity in 2017.
Early life
Katherine Patricia Routledge was born in Tranmere on 17 February 1929, the daughter of Catherine Perry and haberdasher and gentlemen's outfitter Isaac Routledge. Her parents married in 1924. Routledge attended Birkenhead High School in Oxton before studying at the University of Liverpool, where she gained a degree with honours in English Language and Literature. She was involved in the university's dramatic society, where she worked closely with the academic Edmund Colledge, who both directed and acted in several of the society's productions; he persuaded her to pursue an acting career. After graduating, she trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and returned to Liverpool to begin her acting career at the Liverpool Playhouse.Career
Theatre
Routledge had a long career in theatre, including musical theatre, in the United Kingdom and the United States, her vocal range being that of a mezzo-soprano. In 1956 she appeared as Adriana in a musical version of The Comedy of Errors with music by Julian Slade at the Arts Theatre, which was subsequently broadcast on ITV; Routledge commented at the time that "a lot of people who might have shied off Shakespeare have come along and absolutely adored it because of the music". At the Chichester Festival Theatre her first notable role was Agatha in The Magistrate in 1969 opposite Alastair Sim in the title role, which was a big success and transferred to the West End; they were to reunite in 1973 in another play by Pinero Dandy Dick where she played Georgiana Tidman. Later appearances at Chichester included Emilia in Othello in 1975, Mrs Malaprop in The Rivals which transferred to the West End, Miss Dyott in The Schoolmistress in 1994, Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest in 1999 which as well as West End transfers also toured Australia, and The Duchess in Wild Orchids in 2002; one-woman shows included Come for the Ride in 1989 with musical comedy excerpts, A Woman of No Importance and A Lady of Letters by Alan Bennett in 1991, and Admission: One Shilling and Facing the Music.Her West End credits included Little Mary Sunshine, the first production of Cowardy Custard in 1972, Virtue in Danger, the premiere of Noises Off in 1982, The Importance of Being Earnest, and The Solid Gold Cadillac. She was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her work in And a Nightingale Sang in 1979. She was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1980s, appearing in such acclaimed productions as the 1984 Richard III, with Antony Sher in the title role.
A classically trained singer, she made occasionally forays into operetta including taking the title role in an acclaimed production of Jacques Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein at the 1978 Camden Festival; "As the Grand Duchess she invested every phrase, spoken or sung... with wit and meaning, and coloured her tone to express a wide variety of emotions. Never did she resort to the hoydenish behaviour that this role – in British productions at least – seems to invite."
Routledge made her Broadway debut in Roger Milner's comedy How's the World Treating You? in 1966, returning in the short-lived 1968 musical Darling of the Day, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, sharing the honour with Leslie Uggams of Hallelujah, Baby! Following this, Routledge had roles in several more unsuccessful American 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 U.S. First Lady from Abigail Adams to Lucy Webb Hayes; and a 1981 musical, Say Hello to Harvey – based on the Mary Coyle Chase play Harvey – which closed in Toronto before reaching New York City.
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 a series of Shakespeare in the Park summer events. The show was a hit and transferred to Broadway the following January, with Estelle Parsons replacing Routledge. A DVD of the Central Park production, with Routledge, was released in October 2002. She also performed in Façade at New York's Carnegie Recital Hall.
Routledge won a Laurence Olivier Award in 1988 for her portrayal of the Old Lady in Leonard Bernstein's Candide in the London cast of the critically acclaimed Scottish Opera production. One critic noted "She stopped the show with 'I am so easily assimilated', and her long narration worked on at least two levels – it was both hilarious and oddly moving." She also played the role of Nettie Fowler to great acclaim in the 1992 National Theatre production of Carousel, which won the Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival in 1993.
In a 2006 Hampstead Theatre production of The Best of Friends, she portrayed Dame Laurentia McLachlan. In 2007 she starred in Alan Bennett's Office Suite at Chichester and on tour, playing roles she had originated in TV versions almost thirty years previously. In 2008, she played Queen Mary in Royce Ryton's play Crown Matrimonial. More recent work included the role of Dame Myra Hess in the tribute show Admission: One Shilling from 2009, the narrator in The Carnival of the Animals with the Nash Ensemble in 2010, and Lady Markby in An Ideal Husband at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2014.
From 2009, Routledge toured with a show entitled Facing the Music. The show featured insights into her musical theatre career.
Film and television
1960s and 1970s
Routledge's screen credits included To Sir, with Love, Pretty Polly, 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia, The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom, Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River, If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium and Girl Stroke Boy.Routledge's early television appearances included a role in Steptoe and Son, in the episode "Seance in a Wet Rag and Bone Yard", as a clairvoyant called Madame Fontana. She also appeared in Coronation Street, followed by the role of Maggie in ITV's Play of the Week Hobson's Choice, and as a white witch in Doctor at Large. Routledge played Mrs. Jennings in the BBC mini-series production of Sense and Sensibility.
1980s
Routledge did not come to prominence on television until she featured in monologues written for her by Alan Bennett and later Victoria Wood in the 1980s. She first appeared in A Woman of No Importance, the second installment of Bennett's anthology, Objects of Affection in 1982. She then played the opinionated Kitty in Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV in 1985. She performed two further monologues in Bennett's Talking Heads in 1988 and 1998. Routledge was nominated for a British Academy Television Award for Best Actress for the monologue "A Lady of Letters". In 1989, Routledge appeared in a series of television advertisements for the RAC.1990s
In 1990, Routledge accepted the lead role of Hetty Wainthropp in an ITV mystery drama, Hetty Wainthropp: Missing Persons. ITV opted not to pursue a series after the pilot episode, but in 1996 the BBC produced the first series of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, with Routledge again in the lead role. The show co-starred Dominic Monaghan as her assistant and Derek Benfield as her husband. It first aired in January 1996 and ran until late 1998. Monaghan, who went on to enjoy a Hollywood career, credited Routledge as "an amazing teacher" who taught him some "very valuable lessons" in acting.In 1990, Routledge was cast as Hyacinth Bucket in the comedy series Keeping Up Appearances. She portrayed a formerly working-class woman with social pretensions and delusions of grandeur. Routledge delighted in portraying Hyacinth, as she said she "couldn't stand people like her" in real life. In 1991, she won a British Comedy Award for her portrayal and she was later nominated for two BAFTA TV Awards in 1992 and 1993. Throughout 1993, Routledge also appeared as Hyacinth in a number of television advertisements for British Gas. In 1994, she appeared as Hyacinth again in a UK television infomercial for the charity Second Chance; Josephine Tewson also reprised her Keeping Up Appearances role. Routledge also played Hyacinth on the BBC in a series of infomercials for TV licensing.
Routledge ended her role as Hyacinth in 1995, despite the series' continued popularity, as she wanted to pursue other acting roles. In a 2017 interview, Routledge said: "I always thought of the great, great Ronnie Barker. He always left something when he was on a high, and it's much better to have people say now 'Oh, why didn't you do some more?' than having them say 'Oh, is that still on?'". Another reason she wished to leave the role was that she felt that the writer was "recycling some old ideas that we'd already dealt with".
Routledge also played several real-life characters for television, including Barbara Pym, and a dramatised biographical documentary about Hildegard of Bingen for BBC Omnibus in 1994.
2000–2025
In 2001, Routledge starred in Anybody's Nightmare, a fact-based television drama in which she played Sheila Bowler, a mother and piano teacher who served four years in prison for murdering her elderly aunt, but was later acquitted following a retrial.In 2016, Routledge presented Beatrix Potter with Patricia Routledge on Channel 4 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Potter's birth.
In January 2023, Channel 5 aired a 67-minute Keeping Up Appearances retrospective special for their 30 Years Of Laughs series. Cast, crew and celebrities paid tribute to the show. The documentary featured an interview with Routledge, who was 93 at the time, sharing her memories of the show along with supporting cast members Judy Cornwell, Jeremy Gittins and David Janson.
Radio and audio books
In 1966, Routledge sang the role of Mad Margaret in Ruddigore, the title role in Iolanthe and Melissa in Princess Ida, in a series of BBC Radio Gilbert and Sullivan recordings. She took part in a studio broadcast of Tchaikovsky's opera Vakula the Smith in 1989.Her extensive radio credits included several Alan Bennett plays and the BBC dramatisation of Carole Hayman's Ladies of Letters, in which she and Prunella Scales played retired women exchanging humorous correspondence over the course of several years. A tenth series of Ladies of Letters premiered on BBC Radio 4 in 2009. Routledge's radio work prior to 1985 included Private Lives, Present Laughter, The Cherry Orchard, Romeo and Juliet, Alice in Wonderland and The Fountain Overflows.
Having a distinctive voice, Routledge also recorded and released a variety of audiobooks including unabridged readings of Wuthering Heights and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and abridged novelisations of the Hetty Wainthropp Investigates series.
Personal life
Routledge never married and had no children. In a 2001 interview with The Telegraph, she said, "I didn't make a decision not to be married and not to be a mother. Life just turned out like that because my involvement in acting was so total." In the same interview, she admitted to having an affair with a married man in her late 20s and another affair with the director of a play she was in years later.Routledge settled in Chichester in 2000 and was a regular churchgoer at Chichester Cathedral. In 2020, she helped raise £10,000 towards the restoration of the cathedral's roof. She was a patron of the Beatrix Potter Society and Keswick's Theatre by the Lake. She was also an ambassador of Kidney Research UK.
She was a close friend of Betty Boothroyd, a Labour Party MP and Speaker of the House of Commons, and her cover of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" was played at Boothroyd's funeral in March 2023.
Death and Tributes
Death
Routledge died peacefully in her sleep on 3 October 2025, at the age of 96 at her home in Chichester. Her funeral was held at Chichester Cathedral on 5 November 2025, followed by cremation at Chichester Crematorium.Tributes
Tributes to her were paid by BBC director of comedy Jon Petrie, who described her as an actor of "remarkable range" and her role in Keeping Up Appearances as "one of the most iconic performances in British comedy", adding that she "made millions laugh and left a legacy that will always be remembered with gratitude and admiration".Keeping Up Appearances creator Roy Clarke said that he was "sorry, as sure as so many people would be, to hear of " and that it was "a fortunate coincidence to find scripts in the hands of such an accomplished actor". Routledge said of the afterlife: "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."
Honours
Routledge was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1993 Birthday Honours, Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2004 Birthday Honours, and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to theatre and charity.Routledge was awarded an honorary MA by the University of Chichester in 2001. In 2008, Routledge received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from Lancaster University for her contribution to drama and theatre. On 15 March 2019, she received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of Chester at Chester Cathedral for her contributions to theatre and television.
In 2022, the Royal Academy of Music conferred Routledge with honorary membership. An honorary president of the Association of English Singers & Speakers, Routledge sponsored the annual AESS National English Song Prize from 2003 until her death. She was given the Freedom of the Borough of Wirral on 17 January 2025.
Discography
Studio albums
| Year | Album | Notes |
| 1973 | Presenting Patricia Routledge | Re-released on CD in 1996 |