Young Hyacinth

Maybe it was unfair of me to have such high expectations of this short prequel. I knew within the first few minutes I wasn't going to make it through to the end. The actors were boring and in no way portrayed the endearingly eccentric personalities of the original cast. Not worth the 28 minutes.

As an avid fan of KUA, I walked into this, teetering on the fence between skeptical and cautiously optimistic.

Let me tell you...! The actress portraying Hyacinth was absolutely amazing! Everything about her performance was executed superbly. Her speech, timing, mannerisms, expressions! I just cannot sing her praises loudly enough.

The backstory was setting up wonderfully was promising to fill us in on the whole story. I was really anxious to watch the histories of the family.

I am a bit heartbroken that it was only the one episode. I hope hope that it will be finished one day as I think it's a fascinating and funny story.

Long before she became Mrs Bucket (or Bouquet, take your pick!), young Hyacinth was already dreaming of matching china and a bedroom in pastel shades. However, her desperate attempts to transform her sisters and her darling "Daddy" into an altogether better class of family are not appreciated. While Daisy goes around wearing Daddy's overalls; Rose has a new boyfriend every week. AND, if Violet continues consorting with her married manager, she could be inches away from shame and destitution!

Added notes: This brilliant cast sees Kerry Howard playing the much-loved Hyacinth, Katie Redford is Rose, Tamla Kari as Violet, Katherine Pearce plays the role of our Daisy, and audiences are sure to recogise the lovable Mark Addy as the girls' beloved "Daddy".

Definitely a prequel worth seeing!! :)

The first point to notice watching this is that a lot of time, money and effort has gone into this one, thankfully written by Roy Clarke, so it was at least penned by someone who knows the characters inside out.

You can't help but watch Keeping up Appearances and wonder how on earth the four girls are sisters, four utterly different people, I love how this show went some way towards explaining the origins of the characters.

Kerry Howard was a definite triumph as Hyacinth, she had the facial expressions down to a t. She truly did add a lot of humour to the role, how different she was in this to him and her.

I can see this as Sunday teatime comedy, there to fill the slot vacated by Last of the Summer Wine. Lighthearted, easy comedy that seemed to belong to a bygone era, but how many of us crave the comedy of that time? 7/10

Keeping Up Appearances is a true British classic sitcom - exported all over the world, loved by many people, especially in America. It also generated huge audiences in the UK and is often repeated. Whilst the plots were pretty much constantly recycled (Hyacinth wants to arrange a social occasion, but her friends and family hamper her efforts) and you could see the jokes coming a mile off it managed to be consistently very funny. Thanks largely to an almost perfect cast, led by Patricia Routlege who could convey so much just with a facial expression and provided incredible physical comedy as well as delivering the script brilliantly.

Unfortunately Young Hyacinth didn't work in the same way. The farcical elements were missing, and whilst it was nicely shot, it didn't have anything like the feel or charm of the original. However, Kerry Howard who took on the role of Hyacinth as a young woman in the 1950s was great in the role she was given - managing to get the voice and mannerisms of Hyacinth as played by Patricia Routlege.

As a one off show this was ok, raised one or two smiles but not the belly laughs of the silly and over the top original.