Dame Commander Hyacinth, just keeping up appearances
IT would have been her character Hyacinth Bucket’s crowning moment but Keeping Up Appearances actress Dame Patricia Routledge remained modest about her latest honour yesterday.
At Buckingham Palace after being made a Dame Commander by Prince Charles, she said she would keep her medal safely stowed in a drawer.
But, with just a hint of the pleasure that Hyacinth might have taken in being nationally recognised for her excellence, she did admit she would show off the gong after the Palace investiture.
“I shall show it to people at lunch, obviously,” she said, revealing that she was hosting a lunch party for 20 people.
Dame Patricia, 88, was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire for her services to the theatre and charity.
“I’m still in a state of surprise and very thrilled that the Prince of Wales is here today because he just loves actors and he is our much-appreciated patron of the Actors’ Benevolent Fund,” she said.
In addition to her film and TV roles, Dame Patricia has had a prolific career in the theatre. But, as Charles noted, her previous honours – the OBE in 1993 and the CBE in 2004 – were all for services to drama. This was the first specifically mentioning the theatre.
“He said, ‘At last somebody’s noticed’. He said how pleased he was and a little more,” the actress added. She won an Olivier Award for her role as the Old Lady in Leonard Bernstein’s operetta Candide in 1988, and a Tony Award for her part as Alice Challice in Darling Of The Day in 1968, and has worked in a litany of productions across six decades.
She said she has no favoured role from her long career on the stage, adding: “I don’t do beloved roles, I’ve just had a wonderfully interesting time with so many roles. So many interesting plays.”
Sir Richard Eyre, the newly knighted former artistic director of the National Theatre, said he was “flattered and surprised” when he discovered he was being made a Companion of Honour for his services to drama.
Sir Richard, 73, said: “It means an enormous amount.”