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Dame Patricia Routledge, who has died at the years of 96, imprinted herself on the national psyche as the pretentious Mrs. Bouquet.

Declaring it was "said Bouquet," the character trampled over her patient husband and confused neighbours in the popular sitcom, one of Britain's best-loved sitcoms in the 1990s.

Behaving like a aristocrat while living in a suburban area, Hyacinth's monstrous status-seeking schemes were ultimately doomed to collapse—while she battled to maintain her dignity.

It was Lady Patricia's best-known role in a professional life that saw her win stage honors on both sides of the Atlantic, emerge as the lead of Alan Bennett's celebrated TV soliloquies, and star as BBC1's investigative Hetty Wainthropp.

Formative Years and Start in Acting

Katherine Patricia Routledge was born in Birkenhead on February 17 1929.

Her dad was a haberdasher and she later recalled taking cover from German bombs in the cellar of his shop during the war.

She studied English at local the University of Liverpool and intended to become a teacher. Rather, she entered the Liverpool Playhouse before training at the Bristol drama school.

Her successful stage journey brought her from the provinces to the West End, and eventually to New York, where the composer selected her to appear in his musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 1976.

She had previously won a Tony honor for her performance in Darling of the Day.

She could transition effortlessly from comedies to classics.

She progressed from Stratford-upon-Avon, performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company and later to the National Theatre in the capital.

At the National, her lead role in the stage musical 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 theatre and broadcast performances demonstrated her versatility and won her accolades, but it was television that gave Routledge with her best-known roles.

TV Breakthrough and Iconic Characters

Early small-screen appearances included popular programmes like Z Cars and Steptoe and Son.

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

Routledge overcame her initial reluctance to perform his scripts and excelled as A Woman of No Importance and A Lady of Letters.

She later play a isolated, mid-life shop clerk tipped into a relationship with a unconventional podiatrist in Bennett's Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet.

A humorous turn as the larger-than-life Kitty on The Victoria Wood Show led to the development of Hyacinth Bouquet.

Routledge remembered being given the episodes by the author, Roy Clarke—who had also done Last of the Summer Wine and Open All Hours.

"I opened the pages for a while at one o'clock in the morning," she recalled, "I read straight through and Hyacinth jumped off the script. I knew that woman, I'd met several of that type."

Keeping Up Appearances ran for five series and included several holiday specials.

In a documentary, she later claimed that fans had numbered Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and the pontiff.

It turned into the broadcaster's most exported show ever and meant Routledge was known as distant as Africa.

For her performance on the sitcom, she was chosen the UK's all-time favourite actor in 1996, but following half a decade in the role, she decided it was time for a new direction.

"I brought it to an close," she said, "and, of course, the BBC wasn't pleased with very much."

She believed that Roy Clarke was starting to repeat concepts and mentioned a bit of guidance from the performer, Ronnie Barker.

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

Subsequent Work and Private Reflections

Portraying the homely but sharp detective in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates gave her continued success on television, but she always referred to the stage as "the test."

Long after she stopped acting regularly on screen, Routledge made stage travels equally in the UK and abroad.

If interviewers posed the inevitable question, she asked them to write the word retirement because, she clarified: "It's not in my vocabulary."

She did not married or raised children, but informed interviewers of two significant affairs in her youth, one with a married man.

"I experienced guilt and an acute sense that there had to be loss," she admitted. "I suppose I persuaded myself that it was all right for the time being because his union was not a living thing."

Instead, she devoted herself to her craft, honoring it with the talent, dedication and devotion that were always admired 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 starring a younger incarnation of her character.

Challenging the Corporation's approach of resurrecting old comedies she said, "Why are they attempting this sort of project, they have to be desperate."

She had already disagreed with the broadcaster over its decision to not order a documentary she had written about the author the children's author (Routledge was a Patron of the literary group), which finally aired on Channel 4.

On turning 90, she continued to live peacefully in Chichester, where she busied herself collecting funds for the church roof.

In 2017, she became a Dame of the Order of the British Empire but—in contrast to Hyacinth—titles did not affect her head.

Lady Patricia always said she thanked her Northern upbringing and stable family for providing her good sense with her life and her money.

Nonetheless, she confessed that, if any extra money arrive, she'd definitely spend it on "several bottles of sparkling wine"—an love of the finer pleasures in life that she shared with her most famous creation.

"I was never stage-struck," she declared. "I am not theatre-obsessed today. No one is more surprised than I am that I've, in fact, devoted my life pursuing this."