Keeping Up Appearances: Difference between revisions

{{quote|“My name is Bouquet, B-U-C-K-E-T.”

“Oh! ''Bucket!''”

“It's pronounced ‘Bouquet’…” }}

Hyacinth Bucket (apparently pronounced ‘[[It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY"|Bouquet]]’, as she's [[Insistent Terminology|often heard correcting people]]), social climber extraordinaire. Snobby, shallow, and blissfully unaware of how much everyone hates her (rich or poor), Hyacinth is desperately worried that she isn't upper-class enough.

Considering her family—Rose, Onslow, Daisy, etc.—she definitely isn't.

Obsessed with improving her social status, Hyacinth routinely rides roughshod over everyone unlucky enough to know her, assuming they are an admiring chorus who will do whatever she wants. No matter how firmly they tell her “No”, she only hears “Yes, my lady.” She's also blind to the abundant evidence that her son is anything other than her idea of perfect. Her numerous schemes to improve her social status and show-off to all around her, however, are often scuttled by her own lack of intelligent thought and planning.

Her husband, Richard, is long-suffering verging on sainthood. Her neighbour and reluctant confidante, Elizabeth, is a nervous wreck largely because Hyacinth routinely summons her over for coffee – and then details how rare and valuable her china is ''just'' as Elizabeth's about to take a sip. Elizabeth's musician brother Emmet is not quite so cowed, but still hides from Hyacinth for fear that “she'll sing at me”. Hyacinth tells Richard of Emmet's crush on Hyacinth. Emmet does not have a crush on Hyacinth, but instead delights in her absence and pain, and complains about her presence.

Hyacinth's other sisters, Daisy and Rose, are both much lower class, with a junked car permanently parked in their front garden. A dog lives in the car and barks only at Hyacinth, causing her to fall onto a hedge. Daisy is a down-to-earth type rather in awe of Hyacinth's pretensions; Rose is the local [[Hard-Drinking Party Girl|Bottle Fairy]] whose sex-life provides much of the incidental comedy – especially her crush on Hyacinth's (very married) [[The Vicar|parish vicar]]. Daisy's husband, Onslow, looks like a stereotypical lazy slob, and completely ignores all his wife's amorous efforts, but over the course of the series is revealed – in comic contrast with Hyacinth – as an armchair philosopher often seen reading graduate-level texts. He has a sort of survivor's bond with Richard, whom he occasionally tries to “rescue”.

Hyacinth has another sister Violet who, in contrast to Daisy and Rose, is very wealthy. Hyacinth even boasts about her to guests when she is on the telephone with her (“It's my sister Violet! She's the one with the Mercedes, sauna, and room for a pony!”) Despite this, Hyacinth tries to keep at bay the cross-dressing antics of Violet's turf accountant (i.e., bookmaker) husband Bruce. At first [[The Ghost|an unseen character]] for most of the show, Violet physically appears a number of times in the last series.

* [[The Alleged Car]]: Onslow's beat-up '78 Ford Cortina (the one that runs. Barely.)

'''Hyacinth:''' Completely conducive to contemplating cozy, charismatic country cottages!}}

* [[Camp Straight]]: Emmet. Catty, terribly fey, organises the local musicals…very appreciative of Rose's ‘friendly legs’.

** “Oh, nice!” (Onslow)

** “Bog off, our Onslow!” (Rose)

** “It's ‘Bouquet’, dear.” (Hyacinth)

** “The Bucket woman!” (The vicar and his wife)

** ''(Answering the phone)'' “The Bouquet residence! The lady of the house speaking!” (Hyacinth)

* [[Compromising Memoirs]]: Rose plans to write hers in one episode. She begins by asking Daisy and Onslow how to spell ‘memoirs’.

* [[The Ditz]]: Emmet and Elizabeth on occasion. In one episode, Emmet checks the temperature of an iron by touching it.

* [[The Ghost]]: Hyacinth's ''other'' sister Violet, who is married to “turf accountant” Bruce, is constantly mentioned but never seen.

* [[Irony]]: All of Hyacinth's upper-class “friends” much prefer her poorer relatives to her.

* [[It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY"]]: It's not ‘Bucket’, it's ‘Bouquet’.

*** For all her oppressive treatment of Richard, she does [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|at least mean well usually]] and treats him an affectionate demeanor despite her demands. [[Stop Helping Me!|Naturally, this usually only came to bite Richard in the back]] (for example, she turned down a high potential job opportunity because she didn't have the heart to leave him at home all alone, he is coherently sobbing). She also is shown to have a resented love for her slobbish relatives (particularly ‘Daddy’).

* [[Just Eat Gilligan]]: For some reason, it's never an option to just refuse to do whatever Hyacinth says. When Hyacinth ignores a “No”, the characters appear resigned to obey her.

* [[Oh Crap]]: “It's that Bucket woman!”

** One of the jokes in the pilot is people congratulating Richard on his upcoming retirement… only to then immediately switch to condolences as they realize what this'll mean for him.

* [[She's Got Legs]]: Emmet's description of Rose: “The one with the friendly legs.”

* [[Theme Naming]]: Hyacinth and her sisters are all named for flowers. Is that why she [[Fridge Brilliance|insists on pronouncing it “Bouquet”?]]

* [[The Three Certainties in Life]]: One gag compared being invited to one of Hyacinth Buck… err… [[It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY"|Bouquet's]] candlelight suppers to the inevitability of death and taxes.

** Whom Rose, Daisy, and Onslow had to call him “Mr. Whatsit”.

** “It's the Bucket woman!”