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Lady Patricia Routledge, who passed away at the years of 96, etched her presence on the British consciousness as the snobby Hyacinth Bucket.

Insisting it was "pronounced Bouquet," the character ran roughshod over her long-suffering husband and bewildered neighbours in Keeping Up Appearances, one of Britain's most successful comedies in the 1990s.

Behaving like a duchess while living in a suburb, Hyacinth's over-the-top social-climbing plans were ultimately doomed to failure—while she battled to keep her composure.

It was Dame Routledge's best-known role in a professional life that included her win stage honors on both sides of the Atlantic, emerge as the lead of Alan Bennett's famous TV soliloquies, and star as BBC1's crime-busting Mrs. Wainthropp.

Early Life and Career Beginnings

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

Her father was a clothier and she remembered sheltering from enemy air raids in the basement of his store during the Second World War.

She studied literature at local Liverpool University and planned to become a teacher. Rather, she entered the local theatre before training at the Bristol Old Vic.

Her prosperous acting career brought her from the provinces to the London theatre district, and finally to New York, where Leonard Bernstein selected her to appear in his musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 1976.

She had already received a Tony award for her acting in Darling of the Day.

She could transition smoothly from comedies to classics.

She went from Shakespeare's birthplace, performing with the RSC and later to the National Theatre in London.

At the National, her lead role in the stage musical Carousel featured her singing the inspiring You'll Never Walk Alone.

She also took several minor film roles, notably in 1967's To Sir, With Love, and the comedian's funny film Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River.

Her stage and radio performances demonstrated her range and earned her awards, but it was television that gave Routledge with her most high profile roles.

TV Success and Iconic Characters

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

Subsequently, among Britain's esteemed writers, the dramatist, wrote a series 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 later play a isolated, mid-life shop clerk drawn into a relationship with a unconventional foot doctor in Bennett's Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet.

A humorous performance as the exaggerated Kitty on The Victoria Wood Show resulted in the development of Hyacinth Bouquet.

Routledge remembered being sent the episodes by the writer, the screenwriter—known for Last of the Summer Wine and Open All Hours.

"I opened the script for a while at one o'clock in the night," she said, "I went straight through and the character jumped off the script. I knew that lady, I'd met a few of that woman."

Keeping Up Appearances aired for five seasons and featured four Christmas episodes.

In a documentary, she stated that fans had numbered Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and Pope Benedict XVI.

It became the broadcaster's most-sold show of all time and meant Routledge was known as far away as Africa.

For her performance on the sitcom, she was voted the UK's all-time best-loved actor in 1996, but after half a decade in the part, she decided it was the moment for a new direction.

"I decided to end it to an end," she said, "which, naturally, the BBC didn’t care for very much."

She thought that Roy Clarke was beginning to recycle concepts and mentioned a piece of guidance from the performer, the comic.

"He always left with audiences saying, ‘Oh, aren’t you doing any more?’ she said, instead of people saying, ‘Is that still running?’"

Later Work and Private Reflections

Playing the unassuming but astute detective in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates brought her ongoing success on TV, but she always called the stage as "the real challenge."

Years after she stopped appearing frequently on television, Routledge undertook theatre tours equally in the United Kingdom and overseas.

If journalists asked the inevitable inquiry, she requested them to write the word retirement since, she explained: "It's not in my lexicon."

She never wed or had kids, but told the press of a couple of great affairs in her younger days, including one with a married man.

"I felt guilt and an sharp sense that there had to be loss," she confessed. "I guess I convinced myself that it was acceptable for the time being as his union was no a living relationship."

Instead, she dedicated herself to her art, honoring it with the talent, discipline and devotion that were always respected by her peers.

She was critical about the BBC's choice in 2016 to revive Keeping Up Appearances, but this time set in the 1950s and featuring a more youthful version of her role.

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

She had already clashed with the BBC over their decision not to commission a documentary she had written about the writer Beatrix Potter (Routledge was a Patron of the literary group), which finally aired on Channel 4.

On turning 90, she persisted to reside peacefully in the city, where she busied herself collecting money for the cathedral structure.

In 2017, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the British honors system but—in contrast to Hyacinth—honors did not go to her head.

Lady Patricia always stated she thanked her north of England roots and solid background for providing her good sense with her time and her money.

Nonetheless, she confessed that, if any extra money come her way, she'd certainly spend it on "several bottles of sparkling wine"—an appreciation of the finer things in life that she had in common with her best-remembered creation.

"I was never stage-struck," she declared. "I'm not theatre-obsessed now. No one is more surprised than myself that I have, actually, devoted my life pursuing this."