Stuff I love: Keeping Up Appearances
I’ve decided to keep blogging a bit light-hearted for now, seeing as things are all a bit rubbishy, and I thought I’d start with something I love — the BBC’s comedy series Keeping Up Appearances. All you need to know is that there is a woman called Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced ‘Bouquet’), who goes to extraordinary lengths to impress the right kind of people and to keep her family away from the D-list socialites.
The best episode is called ‘What To Wear When Yachting’ from Season 3, but to be honest, the first four seasons are all pretty fantastic.
Hyacinth is basically the person you never want to be. She’s mean, selfish, cannot sing (she things she can sing) and is ashamed of almost everyone around her. Despite this, she does try to accommodate her family (in small doses), and she does mostly love them.
The best things about this show: you don’t need to watch them in order — every episode is essentially the same premise with the same cast (except that Rose is replaced after season 1, but Rose’s character is so good you’ll know exactly who she is episode to episode).
:you can watch them when you feel rubbish and it doesn’t matter if you can’t be bothered laughing. Keeping Up Appearances was something I watched after being in a car accident, and it’s true what they say, laughter is the best medicine.
:you’ll feel like a better person. This is mostly because Hyacinth so awful that anyone could watch her for twenty minutes and realise that they aren’t so bad anyway.
:Onslow and Daisy — IMHO these two steal the show — Daisy is a romantic who spends her days reading romance paperbacks and spends a lot of time trying to seduce her husband; Onslow spends his day on the couch but he has a heart of gold, especially when it comes to watching out for his brother-in-law.
:lack of musical ability: Hyacinth believes she can sing, and spends many episodes trying to persuade the long suffering next door neighbour, Emmet, to give her a part in whatever he is helping put together as part of the operatic society. Hyacinth has no talent whatsoever, but you can’t help but want her to succeed somehow.
:Rose’s outfits: Rose is the sister with the most dramatic love life — each episode features a different Mister she is chasing after. Her hair, her dresses and her crazy makeup is well worth checking out.
:quotable quotes: There are so many funnies on this show, whether it’s the catch phrase ‘It’s BOUQUET’, the constant nagging of poor Richard who is forced into early retirement, or Onslow’s philosophical view of the world. Hyacinth’s disconnection with the world around her allows us to see the inner workings of an almost crazy woman, and also is a good demonstration of why someone like her should never have a driver’s licence.
Where to next?
This made me laugh cry so much: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/keeping-up-appearances-hyacinth-bucket-gifs-quotes-pictures_uk_57728daae4b08d2c563a06e0
And this one is good for some funsies: http://www.playbuzz.com/thebutler10/which-keeping-up-appearances-character-are-you
