Keeping Up Appearances/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternative Character Interpretation: See Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist on the main page for the standard interpretation. Hyacinth may be a highly competitive woman who constantly compared herself to her sisters. Having not received a lot of guidance in life, she's trying to live a respectable life by a set of standards cobbled together from Barbara Cartland novels and an amateur's interpretation of a Christianity she likely wasn't taught. Although she's intelligent enough to be able to see that she's out of her depth, her brittle pride makes her unteachable, because she regards a show of humility as a show of weakness--and that makes it all funny.
  • Fridge Logic: Why are the sisters Theme Named after flowers, if "Bouquet" (Bucket) is Richard's surname?
    • Their surname isn't Bouquet. Why would sisters with the surname Bucket be named after flowers?
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The series is very popular in Denmark. This was acknowledged in one Christmas episode, where Hyacinth and Richard briefly visited Copenhagen to board the QE 2.
    • It's got a considerable fanbase in The Netherlands as well.
    • It's considered one of the iconic Britcoms in the US and Canada, thanks to PBS airing it regularly ever since it premiered. The actors who played Onslow and Daisy even shot original footage for a best-of special made for PBS. It also aired late at night on YTV, a Canadian kids network, for years.
  • Hilarity Ensues: Hyacinth tricks Richard into stealing a car, and then she blames him, but neither of them is known to suffer any legal consequence. As in this page's entry for Mood Whiplash, stuff blows up and a car chase happens, but no one is hurt or killed.
    • Fridge Logic: She wanted a ride in a Rolls-Royce and conned the dealer into a test drive. Richard was nervous about driving a car pricier than their house. Why didn't he just ask the salesman to drive as they intended to be chauffeured anyway?
      • Because Hyacinth goaded him into it with her directions, Richard as usual taking the easy route of compliance.
  • Moment of Awesome: In one episode late in the series, Richard gets fed up with Hyacinth hassling an innocent passer-by and forcefully orders her to stop. Hyacinth is so shocked that she wordlessly complies.
  • Recycled Script: Writer Roy Clarke also did Last of the Summer Wine, and Edie in that show comes across as similar to Hyacinth--except that her attempt at an upper-class facade cracks far more easily.
  • Selective Obliviousness