Keeping Up Appearances is a British sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke. It originally aired on BBC1 from 1990 to 1995. The central character is an eccentric and snobbish lower middle class social climber, Hyacinth Bucket (Patricia Routledge), who insists that her surname is pronounced "Bouquet". The show comprised five series and 44 episodes, four of which are Christmas specials. Production ended when star Patricia Routledge moved on to other projects. All episodes have since been released on DVD.
The sitcom follows Hyacinth in her attempts to prove her social superiority, and to gain standing with those she considers upper class. Her attempts are constantly hampered by her lower class extended family, whom she is desperate to hide. Much of the humour comes from the conflict between Hyacinth’s vision of herself and the reality of her underclass background. In each episode, she lands in a farcical situation as she battles to protect her social credibility.
Keeping Up Appearances was a great success in the UK, and also captured large audiences in the US, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. By February 2016, it had been sold nearly 1,000 times to overseas broadcasters, making it BBC Worldwide’s most exported television programme. In a 2004 BBC poll it placed 12th in Britain’s Best Sitcom. In a 2001 Channel 4 poll Hyacinth was ranked 52nd on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters.
