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Dame Pat Routledge, who has died at the age of 96, made her mark on the British psyche as the snobby Hyacinth Bouquet.

Insisting it was "pronounced Bouquet," Hyacinth ran roughshod over her patient husband and confused neighbours in Keeping Up Appearances, among Britain's most successful comedies in the 1990s.

Acting like a duchess while living in a suburban area, Bucket's over-the-top social-climbing plans were in the end destined to failure—while she struggled to keep her composure.

It was Lady Patricia's most famous role in a professional life that saw her earn theatrical honors on each side of the Atlantic, emerge as the lead of the playwright's famous TV monologues, and become BBC1's investigative Hetty Wainthropp.

Formative Years and Career Beginnings

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

Her dad was a clothier and she remembered sheltering from German air raids in the basement of his store throughout the Second World War.

She majored in English at local Liverpool University and planned to teach. Instead, she entered the Liverpool Playhouse prior to training at the Bristol drama school.

Her prosperous acting career brought her from the provinces to the London theatre district, and eventually to Broadway, where Leonard Bernstein chose her to star in his stage production 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 1976.

She had previously received a Tony award for her performance in Darling of the Day.

She could transition smoothly from comedies to serious drama.

She went from Shakespeare's birthplace, appearing with the RSC and later to the London's national stage in London.

There, her lead part in the stage musical Carousel involved her singing the rousing You'll Never Walk Alone.

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

Her stage and radio performances demonstrated her versatility and won her awards, but it was the small screen that provided Routledge with her best-known roles.

TV Breakthrough and Iconic Characters

Initial small-screen work included well-liked programmes like Z Cars and Steptoe and Son.

And later, one of Britain's most respected playwrights, Alan Bennett, penned a series of remarkable Talking Heads TV monologues for her.

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

She went onto portray a lonely, middle-aged department store assistant drawn into a relationship with a unconventional foot doctor in Bennett's Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet.

A humorous performance as the larger-than-life character on The Victoria Wood Show resulted in the creation of Hyacinth Bucket.

Routledge recalled being given the scripts by the author, the screenwriter—who had also done Last of the Summer Wine and Open All Hours.

"I had opened the script for a moment at one o'clock in the morning," she recalled, "I read straight through and Hyacinth jumped off the page. I knew that woman, I knew a few of that woman."

Keeping Up Appearances ran for five seasons and included four holiday specials.

In a documentary, she later claimed that admirers had included Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and Pope Benedict XVI.

It turned into the broadcaster's most-sold programme ever and ensured Routledge was known as far away as Botswana.

For her performance on the sitcom, she was chosen the UK's all-time best-loved actress in 1996, but following five years in the part, she decided it was the moment for a new direction.

"I decided to end it to an end," she explained, "which, naturally, the broadcaster wasn't pleased with very much."

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

"He made sure to finish with people saying, ‘Oh, aren’t you doing any more?’ she recalled, rather than fans remarking, ‘Is that still running?’"

Later Roles and Private Life

Portraying the unassuming but astute sleuth in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates brought her continued success on TV, but she consistently called the stage as "the test."

Long after she stopped acting regularly on television, Routledge made theatre tours both in the United Kingdom and abroad.

Whenever interviewers posed the inevitable inquiry, she requested them to write the word retirement because, she clarified: "It isn't in my lexicon."

She never wed or raised kids, but informed interviewers of two great affairs in her younger days, including one with a wedded man.

"I experienced guilt and an acute feeling that there had to be pain," she admitted. "I guess I persuaded myself that it was acceptable for the moment because his marriage was not a vibrant relationship."

Instead, she dedicated herself to her craft, serving it with the talent, dedication and devotion that were always respected by her peers.

She was scathing about the BBC's choice in 2016 to revive Keeping Up Appearances, but on this occasion placed in the 1950s and featuring a younger incarnation of her character.

Challenging the Corporation's approach of rebooting classic comedies she remarked, "Why are they attempting this kind of thing, they must be out of ideas."

She had already clashed with the BBC over their move to not commission a documentary she had written about the writer Beatrix Potter (Routledge was a Patron of the Beatrix Potter Society), which eventually broadcast on Channel 4.

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

In 2017, she became a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire but—in contrast to Hyacinth—honors never affect her mind.

Lady Routledge always said she thanked her Northern roots and stable family for giving her good sense with her life and her money.

Even so, she admitted that, if any extra money arrive, she'd definitely spend it on "a case of champagne"—an appreciation of the finer pleasures in life that she had in common with her best-remembered creation.

"I never was theatre-obsessed," she said. "I am not stage-struck now. No one is as amazed than I am that I've, actually, spent my career doing acting."