Routledge: BBC’s remakes are desperate
HER inimitable portrayal of suburban snob Hyacinth Bucket gave the BBC one of its most successful sitcoms.
But Patricia Routledge, 86, has claimed the corporation is now only interested in “sensational headlines” and “desperate” remakes of former hits.
The actress could not hide her disdain for the BBC’s decision to revive the popular Nineties sitcom Keeping
Up Appearances for a one-off episode next year.
“Nothing to do with me, let them get on with it,” she told The Daily Telegraph.
“But tell me, why are they doing this sort of thing? They must be desperate. Look back at the Seventies and Eighties – Ronnie Barker, Leonard Rossiter in Rising Damp, those four masterly actors in The Good Life.
“No sitcoms as good as that around today. Is it true they’re remaking
Porridge too? Remind me to switch off, please.”
The original series still has a global following. “I’m big in the Baltic, you know,” she said. “And huge in Zimbabwe.” Fan mail also continues to flood in – “letters from everyone from small boys to elderly widows”. The new version of Keep
ing Up Appearances, which has the working title Young
Hyacinth, is being resurrected as part of a celebration of the BBC’s most popular comedies and could run to a full series if it proves popular.
Set in the Fifties, it sees Hyacinth working as a maid in an upper-middle class household, trying to escape her dysfunctional family.
Routledge, who was appointed a CBE in 2004, expressed equal astonishment at the BBC’s decision not to commission her recent documentary exploring the life of Beatrix Potter, which was shown on Channel 4. “One does wonder what some people up there in Broadcasting House are thinking,” she said. “All they seem to care about is sensational headlines. I suppose if Beatrix Potter had been a less wholesome character with some skeletons in her closet, they might have taken more interest.”