Keeping Up Appearances star Dame Patricia Routledge has died, aged 96, and in the wake of her passing, a quote about her life has found new resonance among fans.
The actor was best known for playing the snobby sitcom character Hyacinth Bucket, which she pronounced “bouquet”, from 1990 to 1995. The role won her national acclaim, having previously been a theatre star, winning praise in both the UK and the US.
Prior to turning 95, the Bafta nominee and Tony award winner wrote on the Jay Speaks blog about her career and accepting her life as she got older.
“I’ll be turning 95 this coming Monday,” she said. “In my younger years, I was often filled with worry – worry that I wasn’t quite good enough, that no one would cast me again, that I wouldn’t live up to my mother’s hopes. But these days begin in peace, and end in gratitude.”
Routledge admits that her life didn’t begin to take shape until she was in her forties, when working on “provincial stages, in radio plays, in West End productions”. Despite this, she still felt adrift and was “searching for a home within myself that I hadn’t quite found”.
Aged 50, she then accepted her lead role in Keeping Up Appearances, which she thought would be a “small part in a little series”.
“I never imagined that it would take me into people’s living rooms and hearts around the world,” she said. “And truthfully, that role taught me to accept my own quirks. It healed something in me.”
When she turned seventy, Routledge began to learn Italian so she could sing opera in its native language. She said that she also “learned how to live alone without feeling lonely” and “read poetry aloud each evening, not to perfect my diction, but to quiet my soul”.
In her seventies, she returned to performing Shakespeare on stage despite believing she had “aged out of” the roles. “I had nothing to prove,” she defiantly added. “I stood on those boards with stillness, and audiences felt that. I was no longer performing. I was simply being.”
Into her eighties, she tried her hand at watercolours, painting pictures of flowers from her garden, hats from her youth and faces she remembered from the London Underground.
This took her to age 95, where she says she still wrote her letters by hand and learnt to bake rye bread. “I still breathe deeply every morning,” she said. “I still adore laughter – though I no longer try to make anyone laugh. I love the quiet more than ever.”
She concludes her touching note by saying: “I’m writing this to tell you something simple: growing older is not the closing act. It can be the most exquisite chapter – if you let yourself bloom again.
“Let these years ahead be your treasure years. You don’t need to be famous. You don’t need to be flawless. You only need to show up – fully – for the life that is still yours.”
In a statement on her death, Routledge’s agent said: “We are deeply saddened to confirm the passing of Dame Patricia Routledge, who died peacefully in her sleep this morning, surrounded by love. Even at 96 years old, Dame Patricia’s passion for her work and for connecting with live audiences never waned, just as new generations of audiences have continued to find her through her beloved television roles.
“She will be dearly missed by those closest to her and by her devoted admirers around the world.”
Dame Patricia won an Olivier Award for her role as the Old Lady in Leonard Bernstein’s operetta Candide in 1988, a Tony Award for her part as Alice Challice in Darling Of The Day in 1968, and worked in a number of productions across six decades.
Other notable roles included the BBC crime drama series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates and Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads TV monologues. She also starred alongside Sidney Poitier in the 1967 film To Sir, With Love.
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