{"id":265007,"date":"2025-11-05T20:13:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T20:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/265007\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T20:13:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T20:13:17","slug":"hundreds-attend-patricia-routledges-funeral-in-chichester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/265007\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds attend Patricia Routledge’s funeral in Chichester"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laura Raymond,in Chichester and <\/p>\n

Jacob Panons,South East<\/p>\n

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

The actress was made an OBE in 1993, a CBE in 2004, and a dame in 2017<\/p>\n

Hundreds of mourners gathered earlier for the funeral of actress Dame Patricia Routledge, known for playing Hyacinth Bucket in classic TV sitcom Keeping Up Appearances.<\/p>\n

The service took place at Chichester Cathedral, in West Sussex, where a tribute was read out by the Very Reverend Nicholas Frayling.<\/p>\n

He said Dame Patricia had an “instinctive ability, not merely to observe people, but to absorb their characteristics, especially solitary people with hidden vulnerabilities”.<\/p>\n

The actress died “peacefully in her sleep” at the age of 96<\/a> on 3 October, “surrounded by love”, according to her agent.<\/p>\n

\"LauraLaura Raymond\/BBC<\/p>\n

Dame Patricia’s funeral was held at Chichester Cathedral<\/p>\n

Dean Johnston told the congregation: “She never talked about it, but she was a prodigiously generous philanthropist.<\/p>\n

“She donated more than \u00a31m to causes that benefit young people, especially those beginning their careers in music or theatre.<\/p>\n

“Many such people and numerous charitable causes will continue to benefit through the Patricia Routledge Foundation.”<\/p>\n

Those attending the funeral had been asked to donate to the foundation, a grant-making charity which supports a range of charitable causes.<\/p>\n

\"PAPA Media<\/p>\n

Dame Patricia lived in Chichester, where her funeral took place earlier<\/p>\n

The first reading was by Peter Bourke, an actor known for his roles in The Mayor Of Casterbridge and David Copperfield.<\/p>\n

Dame Patricia was remembered for her “versatility and her humanity”.<\/p>\n

The tribute brought some of the gathered congregation to tears as Dean Frayling told stories from the late actress’s life.<\/p>\n

He said she was known around the world for her role as Hyacinth Bucket – pronounced “bouquet” – because “everywhere people like laughing at the English”.<\/p>\n

There was laughter from the congregation when he recalled Dame Patricia remarking: “I’m very big in Botswana.”<\/p>\n

Keeping Up Appearances ran from 1990 to 1995, and the following year, Dame Patricia was voted the nation’s most popular actress at the BBC’s 60th anniversary awards.<\/p>\n

During tributes to the actress during the funeral, her “deep concern for the suffering of the world” was remembered.<\/p>\n

Dean Frayling said upon seeing images of Gaza, she quoted TS Eliot saying: “After such knowledge, what forgiveness?”<\/p>\n

\"PAPA Media<\/p>\n

Dame Patricia was remembered for her “versatility and her humanity”<\/p>\n

He added: “She never lost the capacity for hope\u2026but she knew the difference between hope and optimism.”<\/p>\n

In her final hours, Dame Patricia read passages from Yeats and Shakespeare with her carer, the service was told.<\/p>\n

Mr Frayling ended his tribute at Chichester Cathedral with the words, “Walk on with hope in your heart and you’ll never walk alone”, a lyric from the musical Carousel, which Dame Patricia had starred in on stage.<\/p>\n

The actress also starred in Alan Bennett’s TV monologues and played BBC One’s amateur sleuth Hetty Wainthropp, while also enjoying an acclaimed stage career.<\/p>\n

Canon David Nason was a close friend of Dame Patricia for more than 30 years and the pair met through his role as a theatre chaplain.<\/p>\n

He said: “Some way or another we kind of stuck together through thick and thin, through the highs and the lows.”<\/p>\n

Canon Nason said he used to read fan letters to her from “all over the world” towards the end of her life.<\/p>\n

“It’s amazing what they said and the joy that she brought to people,” he added.<\/p>\n

“People who had been suffering terrible diseases, they’d watch one of her [shows], well Keeping Up Appearances usually, and it had made them feel a whole lot better.”<\/p>\n

\"LauraLaura Raymond\/BBC<\/p>\n

Mourners formed a queue outside the cathedral hours before the funeral started<\/p>\n

Canon Nason explained that Dame Patricia had designed her funeral about four years ago, including all the music.<\/p>\n

Simon Goodwin, who came to the cathedral to pay his respects, said: “She was a really incredible woman, very knowledgeable of a lot of things.” <\/p>\n

Gary Kirby, who also came to the cathedral, added: “I’ve watched her for years and I just thought she was amazing, so I just feel very lucky to be here.”<\/p>\n

Local resident Anne Priest described the late actress as “very much a lady of Chichester”.<\/p>\n

Broadway success<\/p>\n

The Birkenhead-born star was celebrated for her performances on stage as well as screen after starting her career in the theatre in the 1950s.<\/p>\n

Following roles in London’s West End, she established herself in the US when she won the Tony Award for best lead actress in a musical on Broadway in New York for Darling of the Day in 1968.<\/p>\n

She was as adept at serious drama as she was at musicals and comedy – she appeared in Richard III and Henry V for the Royal Shakespeare Company, then won an Olivier Award for best actress in a musical for Candide in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

The 80s also saw her become a national TV star – playing Kitty in Victoria Wood’s As Seen on TV, and delivering three of Bennett’s renowned Talking Heads monologues, including 1988’s A Lady of Letters, for which she received a Bafta Award nomination.<\/p>\n

She earned two further Bafta nominations, for Keeping Up Appearances, in 1992 and 1993, then starred in the title role as a retired woman on a quest to solve crimes in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates between 1996 and 1998.<\/p>\n

The actress appeared numerous times at Chichester Festival Theatre, near her home in West Sussex.<\/p>\n

She was made an OBE in 1993, a CBE in 2004, and a dame in 2017.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting from PA Media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Laura Raymond,in Chichester and Jacob Panons,South East BBC The actress was made an OBE in 1993, a CBE…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-265007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}