Patricia Routledge

In 2000 she was voted the UK's favorite actress thanks to her performances as those two redoubtable dowagers of the BBC's television schedules: Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced "Bouquet") and Hetty Wainthropp.

The roles in which she's found such success disguise the depth of her craft: at Strafford in Shakespeare, at the Nation Theater in musicals such as Carousel, or in sensitive portraits like Alan Bennett's Talking Heads, she's displayed her effortless versatility. But she knows how much of a disguise it all can be. "The essential you comes out," she says, "because you are vulnerable up there. Whatever big hat you got on."

Let's discuss Dame Patricia Routledge

Patricia Routledge Desert Island Discs

Routledge in Alan Bennett's A Woman of No Importance

One of the funniest women ever

Richard, what a thing to say to somebody with a solid silver self-cleaning sauce separator.

As Kitty on Victoria Wood.

Thank you R7! God, to memorize those lines, get the inflection down, wait for laughs, pitch perfect.

Best friend is Dame Janet Baker. Would love to join them for lunch.

R8 There are 4/5 clips on YouTube. All written by Victoria and performed by Patricia.

So diverse: Broadway musicals, silly television comedies, serious stage works, and then her films.

And to think that after bomb after bomb on Broadway, she turned down the PIRATES B'way transfer -- her one chance to have been in a B'way hit.

Here she in her salad days on Coronation Street in 1961.

I’ll have to Oh Dear myself: Here she IS …

Never married, is she a lesbian?

R12, I don’t know about her Broadway flops but wasn’t she a Tony winner? Flops don’t usually spawn Tony winners.

Long standing rumor she dated the former Speaker of The House of Commons, Betty Boothroyd who died earlier this year.

R16 Darling of the Day, for which she won her Tony, was a big flop, lasting only 29 performances.

Performing a great song she introduced in a flop with a great score---

Yes, Patricia Routledge is a lesbian.

She's been rumoured to be in a relationship with pretty much every high profile British lesbian at some point. The oddest one I heard was that she was in a love triangle with Betty Boothroyd and newsreader Moira Stewart.

She was very good in Keeping Up Appearances, but that show (and her) was very one note. Nice to see the links to other work but nothing very substantial, was it? Any reason for this lack if not sucess, visibility?

I agree, R25. That show 'Keeping Up Appearances' was repetitious with vulgar, non-credible characters.

She was too fat to play regular, non-comic roles.

She was a latter-day Judith Furse.

Do I pronounce it as 'Rowtlidge' or 'Ruttlidge'?

This is what I love about DL. There are fans and comments about actors who would normally be forgotten. I mean no disrespect to Ms. Routledge.

R28, I don't know how YOU pronounce it, but SHE pronounces is with the first syllable rhyming with now. R25. Yes, that's interesting. She clearly made an impact with relatively few roles. I've enjoyed her monologues (esp. Alan Bennett) and thought Hetty Wainthropp was a decent series. Not much of a Keeping Up Appearances fan

Love her rendition of "Climb Every Mountain."

I saw "Darling of the Day" when it had a try-out in Boston. Although it flopped in NYC, Patricia received rave reviews and stopped the show with this number. To this day, I never recall an audience leaping to their feet with such enthusiasm and cheering loudly. It was a time when people didn't give a standing ovation at the drop of a hat.

She played a kind teacher in To Sir With Love.

She is a notorious pussy hound, big Bush supporter.

Regardless, she is hilarious

At least 2 other Broadway hits were London transfers for which she did not cross the pond -- the original NOISES OFF and the Nicholas Hytner CAROUSEL. (Not sure whether that was her choice in either case. Weirdly, she's not on the original CAROUSEL recording from London either.)

Routledge was in Noises Off? Oh man, now THAT must have been something to see! N.O. has got to be one of the funniest farces of the last 50 years...

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was glorious, and Patricia Routledge should have won another Tony.

She is such a cultural treasure, a performer of sociology. She reminds me a bit of Julia Child.

(r36) She left "Carousel" after receiving rave notices, because she was in the middle of her run in "Keeping Up Appearances" and played the role of Nettie was on a seasonal hiatus.

Frank Rich when reviewing "Carousel" in London in the NY Times on December 17, 1992, noted: "Almost as important to the production is Patricia Routledge's Nettie, whose direct and understated delivery of "You'll Never Walk Alone" to the just widowed Julie shakes the cobwebs from a song long synonymous with sentimental overkill..."

Patricia was never driven to be a major star in this country and worked quite extensively in England, to great acclaim. When she did work in the States, she usually received critical kudos and had she desired, could have remained in productions that she appeared in.

In July of 1980, the NY Times said, about her performance as Ruth in "The Pirates of Penzance", "Patricia Routledge is illuminated by her characteristically daffy, befuddled glee. Like Mr. Rose, she should be embargoed from ever returning to her native England."

Wow, that video at r2! Sooooo good. And she kind of reminded me of my mom, circa 1982, looks wise.

How very DARE any of you VILE CUNTS disparage the great Dame Patricia Routledge!

I loved this interview with Parkinson. He even asked her later in the interview why she never married.

Do you like Hetty or Hyacinth better?

Patricia, at 60 in this 1989 special, does a brilliant job of singing "Follow Me" from "Camelot". It is haunting and shows the depth of her vocal skills. She sings it at the 17-minute mark.

Loooooooooooove her. Absolute comedic genius.

She was pissed at the BCC. Learned that Hetty was canceled in a newspaper.

At 93, enjoying retirement in Chichester, West Sussex , with longtime companion.

R53 I thought Betty Boothroyd died?

R55, if memory serves, her partner is an artist.

How very DARE you, R54?!?! She's MY mother!

I thought she went out with Pat from EastEnders?

Catch Patricia Routledge and Prunella Scales in Alan Bennett's 1978 play "Doris and Doreen"

Here Alan Bennett deliciously captures mood of things one year before Margaret Thatcher swept into power and unleashed reforms that shook things to their core including labor.

As with many of Alan Bennett's plays main characters don't see what's coming, though it's clear to many in audience what's going on.

MISS PYM'S DAY OUT, another great one from Patricia Routledge. Nice slice of a GB largely gone now.

This is a charming interview and a very intelligent definition of the process of acting. A lovely lady.

She is on the National Theatre 1993 cast recording (the one with the yellow horse on the cover, came out before the Viv Beaumont US transfer opened), and it's glorious. The original NT show is legendary. There are some bootleg recordings on YouTube, but the this version of the cast recording is very much worth finding, too. I think it's better than the US version with the warped Art Nouveau Billy on the cover.

Pat’s fine! She sends her love!

No, she's not, R64. That's Meg Johnson on the recording. I'm not sure why PR didn't make the album, but she didn't,

I was fortunate enough to see Patricia Routledge do Noises Off at the Savoy in London just after it opened. When people use the phrase "comic tour-de-force" I always assume they're blowing smoke up my weathered old keester. But that evening was one that is indelibly printed on my memory, and that deserves that assessment. The second of the three acts, which is basically done in dumbshow was particularly brilliant.

I can't remember if it was before or after but I also saw Routledge do Pinero's Dandy Dick. Funny enough but not howlingly funny like Noises Off.

Adding her legendary performance of "Duet for One" from the catastrophic but fascinating seven-performance flop,1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. She is playing both departing First Lady Julia Grant and incoming First Lady Lucy Hayes at the inauguration of Rutherford B. Hayes, following a contentious election. Routledge is gruff and brash as Julia, and all shimmering soprano as Lucy. She also accompanied the character switch with a flipping of a hat. The audience goes absolutely berserk at least three times. Others, including Victoria Clark and Judy Kaye have taken on this song, but without hitting the heights that Routledge did.

R55, is her partner's name Phyllis?

R70’s clip was interesting. But why were those interviewers so rude to her? They kept interrupting, talking over her. If they were so interested in having her as a guest, they should have shown her more respect.

Think she'll live through 2024?

UK here. The One Show is not the place to find intelligent, in depth interviews. It’s a magazine show for people with a poor attention span.

How is she not related to Julia Child? If she was still alive she could have played her very well in a movie

Is it true that she was offered Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, but turned it down because she thought it too gruesome? Was this for Broadway or the West End?

I think Hal Prince wanted her for Broadway.

Great as Lansbury was, I think Routledge would have surpassed her. Plus Routledge has great control of her head/chest mix and would have sailed through that score.

Patricia was the better vocalist.

r78/r79 - I have absolutely no doubt that Angie would agree with you.

On the other hand. Angela had a character singing voice which works better for some roles. I don't need to hear Patricia's If He Walked Into My Life.

Routledge would have been brilliant as Florence Foster Jenkins had it been done about 25 years ago. Far better than Meryl.

Yes, R82, that would have been perfect casting.

Wasn't Hyacinth a kind of Florence Foster Jenkins? I mean she sang for Emmett all the time!

She narrates Wuthering Heights on Audible. IT is free is you have a subscription.

Another Alan Bennett monologue - a lady of letters.

Alan Bennett's Talking Heads. Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet.

i was fortunate enough to see her in the original production of Noises Off at the Savoy. It was a masterclass in comic technique, particularly the 2nd act when the set has been reversed and we are seeing backstage. Without uttering a word, she had the entire audiences wetting themselves. Brilliant, memorable. I also saw her, a couple of years later in London Assurance as Lady Gay Spanker. Though the plays is a creaky old warhorse, she managed to steal the show and was brilliantly funny. I adore her and her work.

Those Bennett monologues are hard to do. As brilliant as Patricia, and Maggie Smith and Julie Waters - were doing them, there were others who bombed. Even Bennett himself doing them is a bore.

Saw her in Boston as a youngster in "Darling of the Day" co-starring with Vincent Price. She brought the house down with a thunderous ovation for her singing and cavorting in "Not on Your Nellie". During the curtain call, Price received good applause, but it was Patricia who had the audience standing and cheering. Brilliant musical-comedy performance.

r89 - I saw the Noises Off revival on the West End a few weeks ago while holidaying in London. I wonder how much it differs from the original production as I found it incredibly unfunny. Like the worst, lowest-common-denominator ITV sitcom come to theatrical life. And, I don't mind farces -- I've even enjoyed some -- but this one left me so cold. Pretty mild response in the audience, too, for a supposedly uproarious night in the theatre.

R92 have you seen the movie adaptation?

R93 The movie adaptation was S**t. Carole Burnett is a comic genius but this one she truly missed.....

{quote]Carole Burnett is a comic genius

Except when she sucks.

One of the family too apparently.

Supposedly long term romance with Betty Boothroyd former speaker of the House of Commons,

I wore the same salad bowl of a hat in OP’s photo to a drag brunch.