Young Hyacinth

Where did the celebrated character Hyacinth Bucket come from? Set in a never-never land of the Fifties and early Sixties, Roy Clarke offered an imaginative speculation.

She grew up in a modest lakeside cottage, surrounded by her three sisters Violet (Tamla Karl), Daisy (Katharine Pearce), and Rose (Katie Redford). All three of them displayed the social foibles that would blight their later lives: Violet was a social climber, Daisy fond of wearing gents' overalls; and Rose promiscuous. All three of them were feckless, leaving Hyacinth (Kerry Howard) with the onerous duties of holding down a full-time job, keeping house, and looking after Daddy (Mark Addy). We had to admire Hyancinth's indomitable spirit - despite the numerous handicaps blighting her life, she took great pleasure in her work as a housemaid to the bourgeois Cooper-Smith family, even though their social graces were infinitely inferior to her own.

Sandy Johnson's production suggested that Hyancinth was a throwback to an earlier time when 'U' and 'Non-U' gradations of behavior really mattered, especially among the upwardly mobile social climbers. The fact that her family were only interested in material things was irrelevant; the fact that she could look forward to a future life of wedded bourgeois bliss with a respectable spouse (though not her present beau William (James Wrighton)) was sufficient for her.

Kerry Howard was particularly convincing in the lead role; she caught the character's flat northern vowels interspersed with the desperate desire to retain her Received Pronunciation training. She had one especially funny sequence in the Cooper-Smith's household, as she tried to do the vacuuming while under the influence of liqueur. At that point Spencer's body assumed something of the magnificent elasticity of Patricia Routledge's in the original series.

A gentle episode, to be sure, providing evidence of Clarke's essential generosity towards his characters, despite their excesses. But nonetheless THE YOUNG HYACINTH has potential, should the BBC wish to develop it into series form.

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.

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.

This comedy one off is part of the BBC's continuing sitcom season in 2016. Written by Roy Clarke it is a prequel to Keeping up Appearances.

Kerry Howard plays young Hyacinth the maid with aspirations to be a social climber in 1950s Britain who would be later portrayed by Patricia Routledge as Hyacinth Bucket, pronounced Bouquet.

Howard has the mannerisms of Routledge as well as the voice but with an abysmal script there was no characterisation. We see her living in a house by the canal with her more common sisters and their dad, a war veteran who is fond of the booze.

This episode was a laughter free zone, not helped by murky camera- work, lack of canned laughter, hammy acting and an unfunny script.

Writer Roy Clarke has previous form with prequels. He did First of the Summer Wine which had some charm despite the dodgy continuity with the main show, at least it complemented Last of the Summer Wine. Young Hyacinth does not.

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.