{"id":59292,"date":"2025-10-03T13:07:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T13:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/59292\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T13:07:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T13:07:07","slug":"keeping-up-appearances-star-patricia-routledge-dies-aged-96-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/59292\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping Up Appearances star Patricia Routledge dies aged 96 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">British actor Patricia Routledge, best known for her role as Hyacinth Bucket in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/bbc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/bbc\/\">BBC<\/a> sitcom Keeping Up Appearances, has died at the age of 96, her agent said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">She played the hilariously snobbish character on the BBC programme in the early 1990s, but also had a prolific career in the theatre.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A statement said: \u201cWe are deeply saddened to confirm the passing of dame Patricia Routledge, who died peacefully in her sleep this morning surrounded by love.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cEven at 96 years old, dame Patricia\u2019s passion for her work and for connecting with live audiences never waned, just as new generations of audiences have continued to find her through her beloved television roles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cShe will be dearly missed by those closest to her and by her devoted admirers around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">Routledge won an Olivier Award for her role as the Old Lady in Leonard Bernstein\u2019s operetta Candide in 1988, and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/tony-awards\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/tony-awards\/\">Tony Award<\/a> for her part as Alice Challice in Darling Of The Day in 1968, and worked in a number of productions across six decades.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">She was born on February 17th, 1929, in Birkenhead, Merseyside where her father was a high-class gents\u2019 outfitter and \u201ckeeping up appearances\u201d was the name of the game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">She read English at Liverpool University where she appeared in student shows, later making her professional debut at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1952 as Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Mary Millar, Patricia Routledge and Judy Cornwall on location filming Keeping Up Appearances. Photograph: Neil Munns\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/HKPQQTSRVVHXJL6ACACZLXWJSY.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"1056\"\/>Mary Millar, Patricia Routledge and Judy Cornwall on location filming Keeping Up Appearances. Photograph: Neil Munns <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">She debuted in London two years later and went on to became well known on Broadway, appearing in musicals and the play, How\u2019s The World Treating You?<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Alongside the stage she also made her mark on TV and became known for playing Kitty in Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV in the mid-1980s before playing Hyacinth in the BBC\u2019s Keeping Up Appearances.- PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British actor Patricia Routledge, best known for her role as Hyacinth Bucket in BBC sitcom Keeping Up Appearances,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60,41411,41410],"class_list":["post-59292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-keeping-up-appearances","tag-patricia-routledge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}