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Lady Patricia Routledge, who has died at the years of 96, imprinted herself on the British consciousness as the pretentious Mrs. Bouquet.

Insisting it was "pronounced Bouquet," the character trampled over her patient husband and confused neighbours in Keeping Up Appearances, among Britain's most successful sitcoms in the 1990s.

Behaving like a aristocrat while living in a suburb, Hyacinth's over-the-top social-climbing schemes were ultimately doomed to collapse—while she struggled to maintain her composure.

It was Dame Patricia's most famous part in a professional life that included her win theatrical awards on each side of the Atlantic, emerge as the lead of Alan Bennett's famous TV monologues, and star as BBC1's investigative Hetty Wainthropp.

Formative Life and Career Beginnings

Catherine Pat Routledge was born in Birkenhead on February 17 1929.

Her father was a clothier and she later recalled sheltering from German air raids in the cellar of his store throughout the war.

She majored in English at nearby Liverpool University and planned to teach. Instead, she entered the Liverpool Playhouse prior to studying at the Bristol drama school.

Her successful stage career took her from the regions to the London theatre district, and finally to New York, where Leonard Bernstein chose her to appear in his musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 1976.

She had already received a Tony honor for her performance in Darling of the Day.

She could move effortlessly from lighthearted plays to classics.

She progressed from Stratford-upon-Avon, appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company and later to the London's national stage in the capital.

At the National, her starring role in the theatre production Carousel involved her performing the rousing You'll Never Walk Alone.

She also took several supporting film roles, especially in 1967's To Sir, With Love, and the Jerry Lewis comedy outing Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River.

Her theatre and broadcast performances proved her versatility and earned her awards, but it was television that gave Routledge with her most high profile roles.

TV Breakthrough and Iconic Roles

Initial small-screen appearances included well-liked programmes like Z Cars and Steptoe and Son.

Subsequently, one of Britain's most respected writers, Alan Bennett, penned a set of remarkable Talking Heads TV solos for her.

Routledge conquered her early hesitation to act his material and shone as A Woman of No Importance and A Lady of Letters.

She later play a lonely, middle-aged shop clerk tipped into a affair with a kinky podiatrist in Bennett's Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet.

A humorous turn as the larger-than-life character on The Victoria Wood Show led to the creation of Hyacinth Bucket.

Routledge remembered being sent the scripts by the writer, Roy Clarke—known for Last of the Summer Wine and Open All Hours.

"I had opened the script for a while at 1 a.m. in the night," she said, "I read straight through and the character leapt off the script. I knew that lady, I'd met several of that type."

Keeping Up Appearances aired for five series and included four Christmas episodes.

In a film, she stated that fans had included Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and the pontiff.

It turned into the broadcaster's most exported show ever and ensured Routledge was recognised as distant as Africa.

For her performance on the sitcom, she was voted the UK's all-time favourite actress in 1996, but after half a decade in the role, she felt it was the moment for a change.

"I brought it to an close," she explained, "and, naturally, the BBC wasn't pleased with very much."

She believed that the writer was beginning to recycle concepts and recalled a bit of guidance from the comedian, the comic.

"He always left with audiences asking, ‘Oh, won't you do any more?’ she recalled, instead of people saying, ‘Is that still running?’"

Later Work and Personal Life

Playing the unassuming but astute sleuth in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates brought her continued popularity on television, but she always referred to the stage as "the test."

Long after she stopped acting frequently on television, Routledge undertook stage travels equally in the United Kingdom and overseas.

If journalists posed the inevitable inquiry, she requested them to write the word retirement because, she clarified: "It's not in my vocabulary."

She never wed or raised children, but told the press of a couple of significant romances in her youth, including one with a married man.

"I experienced guilt and an acute sense that there had to be loss," she admitted. "I guess I persuaded myself that it was acceptable for the moment as his union was not a vibrant thing."

In place of family, she devoted herself to her art, serving it with the skill, dedication and commitment that were consistently respected by her peers.

She was critical about the broadcaster's decision in 2016 to bring back Keeping Up Appearances, but on this occasion placed in the 1950s and starring a younger version of her character.

Questioning the Corporation's approach of rebooting classic comedies she said, "For what reason are they doing this sort of project, they have to be out of ideas."

She had already disagreed with the BBC over their decision to not order a film she had written about the writer the children's author (she was a Patron of the Beatrix Potter Society), which finally aired on Channel 4.

Upon reaching 90, she persisted to reside peacefully in Chichester, where she busied herself raising funds for the church structure.

In 2017, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire but—unlike Hyacinth—honors never affect her head.

Dame Routledge always stated she credited her north of England roots and stable background for providing her practicality with her life and her money.

Nonetheless, she admitted that, should any extra money arrive, she'd certainly spend it on "several bottles of champagne"—an love of the better pleasures in existence that she shared with her most famous creation.

"I never was stage-struck," she declared. "I'm not theatre-obsessed today. No one is more surprised than myself that I have, in fact, spent my career doing acting."