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Dame Pat Routledge, who has died at the years of 96, made her mark on the British psyche as the pretentious Hyacinth Bucket.

Insisting it was "said Bouquet," Hyacinth trampled over her long-suffering husband and confused neighbours in the popular sitcom, one of Britain's best-loved comedies in the 1990s.

Behaving like a aristocrat while living in a suburban area, Bucket's over-the-top social-climbing plans were in the end doomed to collapse—while she battled to keep her composure.

It was Dame Patricia's best-known part in a professional life that included her earn theatrical awards on both sides of the ocean, become the lead of the playwright's famous TV monologues, and become BBC1's crime-busting Mrs. Wainthropp.

Early Life and Career Beginnings

Katherine Pat Routledge was born in Merseyside on February 17 1929.

Her dad was a haberdasher and she later recalled taking cover from enemy air raids in the cellar of his store throughout the war.

She studied English at nearby the University of Liverpool and intended to teach. Instead, she joined the local theatre prior to training at the Bristol drama school.

Her successful acting career brought her from the regions to the London theatre district, and eventually to Broadway, where Leonard Bernstein selected her to appear in his musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 1976.

She had previously received a Tony award for her performance in Darling of the Day.

She could move effortlessly from lighthearted plays to classics.

She progressed from Shakespeare's birthplace, appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company and later to the London's national stage in London.

There, her lead part in the theatre production Carousel involved her performing the inspiring You'll Never Walk Alone.

She also took several minor movie parts, especially in the 1967 film To Sir, With Love, and the comedian's comedy outing Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River.

Her stage and radio performances demonstrated her versatility and won her accolades, but it was the small screen that gave Routledge with her most high profile characters.

Television Breakthrough and Memorable Roles

Initial television work included popular shows like Z Cars and Steptoe and Son.

And later, among Britain's esteemed writers, Alan Bennett, penned a set of outstanding Talking Heads TV solos for her.

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

She went onto portray a lonely, middle-aged shop assistant tipped into a affair with a unconventional podiatrist in Bennett's Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet.

A comic turn as the exaggerated Kitty on The Victoria Wood Show resulted in the creation of Mrs. Bouquet.

Routledge recalled being sent the scripts by the author, the screenwriter—who had also done Last of the Summer Wine and Open All Hours.

"I had opened the script for a moment at 1 a.m. in the night," she recalled, "I read straight through and Hyacinth jumped off the page. I recognized that lady, I'd met several of that type."

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

In a documentary, she later claimed that admirers had numbered Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and Pope Benedict XVI.

It became the broadcaster's most-sold show ever and ensured Routledge was recognised as far away as Africa.

For her performance on the sitcom, she was chosen the UK's all-time best-loved actress in 1996, but after half a decade in the role, she felt it was time for a new direction.

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

She thought that the writer was beginning to repeat ideas and recalled a piece of guidance from the comedian, Ronnie Barker.

"He always left with audiences saying, ‘Oh, aren’t you doing any more?’ she recalled, rather than people remarking, ‘Is that still running?’"

Later Roles and Private Reflections

Playing the unassuming but sharp detective in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates gave her continued success on television, but she consistently called the theatre as "the real challenge."

Long after she stopped acting regularly on television, Routledge undertook theatre tours both in the United Kingdom and overseas.

Whenever interviewers asked the inevitable inquiry, she requested them to spell out the word retirement because, she explained: "It isn't in my lexicon."

She did not married or raised kids, but informed interviewers of a couple of significant romances in her younger days, including one with a wedded man.

"I felt remorse and an acute feeling that there would be loss," she admitted. "I suppose I convinced myself that it was all right for the time being as his marriage was not a living relationship."

In place of family, she devoted herself to her craft, honoring it with the talent, dedication and commitment that were consistently admired by her peers.

She was critical about the broadcaster's decision in 2016 to revive Keeping Up Appearances, but this time set in the 1950s and starring a more youthful incarnation of her role.

Challenging the network's approach of resurrecting old sitcoms she remarked, "Why are they doing this kind of project, they have to be out of ideas."

She had previously disagreed with the BBC over its move to not commission a film she had authored about the writer the children's author (she was a Patron of the literary group), which eventually broadcast on Channel 4.

Upon reaching 90, she persisted to reside quietly in Chichester, where she busied herself collecting money for the church roof.

In 2017, she became a Dame of the Order of the British Empire but—in contrast to her character—titles never go to her mind.

Dame Patricia often said she thanked her north of England upbringing and solid background for providing her practicality with her time and her finances.

Even so, she admitted that, if any extra cash arrive, she'd certainly spend it on "a case of champagne"—an appreciation of the finer things in life that she shared with her best-remembered creation.

"I never was theatre-obsessed," she declared. "I am not stage-struck today. Nobody's more surprised than myself that I've, in fact, spent my life doing this."