The title of this show describes it perfectly. Hyacinth Bucket (“It’s pronounced Bouquet!”) is a middle-aged, middle-class housewife. Nothing is more important to her than keeping up appearances. She’s obsessed with perfection and proper etiquette. She’s a high maintenance woman who always has to be the center of attention, the most important person in the room, unless there’s someone of even higher social status nearby. If you don’t have a title, Hyacinth Bucket couldn’t care less about you. She’s desperate to climb the social ladder, even if while she’s trying she almost always falls off. She’s known far and wide for her tasteful candlelight suppers served on her Royal Doulton china with the hand-painted periwinkles.
What makes this show so funny is that no matter what Hyacinth does to impress everyone, the harder she tries, the more she embarrasses herself. And unbeknownst to her, most people, including the vicar, either dislike her or are afraid of her, trying to avoid an encounter with “The Bucket Woman” at all cost.
The rest of the characters are equally as entertaining. There’s Hyacinth’s family, a constant source of embarrassment to her. She once said, “I love my family, but I don’t have to acknowledge them in broad daylight.” She’s ashamed of how they look and live – in a rundown council house with a broken down car parked in the front garden. Brother-in-law Onslow never wears a shirt, spends most of the time either in bed or watching the telly. Sister Daisy is a romantic, married to the “bone-idle” Onslow and loves reading romance novels. Sister Rose is man crazy, always waiting on phone calls from different men, most of them married. And their senile father keeps running away and getting into all kinds of mischief, including dressing up in a spaceman outfit at a department store.
The only sister Hyacinth is not ashamed of is Violet. Hyacinth boasts that Violet owns a Mercedes and a house big enough for a swimming pool, a sauna, and room for a pony. One thing she doesn’t boast about is the fact that Violet’s husband Bruce seems to have a penchant for cross-dressing.
Hyacinth is always gushing over her beloved son, Sheridan, who is never seen. He’s at 
university taking courses in needlework. He’s always calling his “mummy” asking for money.
Next door neighbor, Elizabeth, can never say no to Hyacinth who’s always inviting her over for coffee. But Elizabeth is so nervous being around her that she never fails to spill her coffee or break something. Elizabeth’s divorced brother, Emmet, lives with her and directs the amateur operatic society. He tries so hard to avoid interactions with Hyacinth because she keeps “singing at him” trying to get him to include her in one of his musical productions.
And then there’s Richard, Hyacinth’s long-suffering, hen-pecked husband. He’s so beaten down that he just does what he’s told without argument. Like when Hyacinth makes him call the Chinese ambassador because she’s tired of getting wrong numbers, people calling in orders for a Chinese takeaway restaurant.
This is one of the classics of British TV, one you’ve probably seen airing on PBS. One of my favorite episodes is when Hyacinth finds out her neighbor is going on a lavish Caribbean holiday. Hyacinth will not be outdone. She gets some travel brochures, even though she’s not taking a holiday, and tries, in so many ridiculous ways, to get everyone to happen upon them and be impressed by her own lavish holiday.
The laugh track is a bit overdone here, but that was expected on situation comedies back then. It’s a funny show. You can’t wait to see what kind of embarrassing situation Hyacinth gets herself into. But don’t watch too many in a row, like I did. Hyacinth can really get on your nerves.
MAIN CAST:
Patricia Routledge – Hyacinth
Clive Swift – Richard
Geoffrey Hughes – Onslow
Judy Cornwell – Daisy
Josephine Tewson – Elizabeth
David Griffin – Emmet
Shirley Stelfox – Rose (Series 1)
Mary Millar – Rose (Series 2-5)
Total Seasons: 5 (44 episodes)
Seasons Available on US Formatted DVD: 5
In Production: 1990 – 1995
Viewer Discretion: Suitable for all audiences
Fry and Laurie met when they were members of Cambridge University’s Footlights Dramatic Club. With Fry’s talent as a wordsmith and Laurie’s as a musician who could parody all musical genres, the two formed an incomparable comedy duo. (Although, I guess you could compare them to Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.)
many different characters. Fry and Laurie do it all in this show.
The unseen narrator and interviewer is Roy Mallard, played flawlessly by Chris Langham. He travels Britain talking to ordinary people in their ordinary jobs: a police officer, photographer, teacher, vicar, airline pilot, mother, managing director, estate agent, solicitor, journalist, actor and bank manager.
around Roy considers him to be somewhat unattractive. The running joke throughout the series is that nobody can believe he’s actually married. He’s also rather accident prone – getting hit in the face with a golf club, spilling coffee all over himself or getting covered in acidic photo developer – and the comments made about his appearance are laugh out loud funny.
actor Bill Nighy.
“It’s not a Great Wall. It’s an alright wall. It’s the Alright Wall of China.”
This show made me laugh out loud. It’s so ridiculous, so filled with nonsense, you can’t help but be amused. And it is shot in the retro style of the late 1970s, early 1980s, with the hairstyles, fashions, and props of the time period.
In the quaint English village of Clatterford, the local town Women’s Guild is a place where ladies gather to gossip, learn about their family trees, hear talks on various topics, trade recipes, and help with church and charity functions. But as guild leader Eileen Pike says, “It’s not all jam and Jerusalem.” (Jam & Jerusalem is the original UK title for this show.) To Eileen, the guild is the most important thing in her life and she wants her members to feel the same way.
French), a daffy cheese factory worker who’s also a schizophrenic. Her alter-ego, Margaret, is incredibly hostile and everyone dreads her “coming out.” There’s Tip who, as the receptionist at the local surgery, knows the ailments of everybody in town. She even files the medical records based on patients’ conditions rather than their names. And if you’re a fan of Absolutely Fabulous, you would never recognize the beautiful Joanna Lumley who plays geriatric Delilah Stagg, who bangs out hymns on the church organ. Then there’s Kate, a lonely, clingy young woman who became a bereavement counselor after her husband died.
The only somewhat sane member of the guild is Sal. She’s a nurse at the Clatterford Health Center, working with her husband Mike. When Mike suddenly dies, Sal’s son James (the wonderful David Mitchell – 
Some of my favorite recurring sketches include: a wife who tries on new outfits for her husband looking for a compliment, but the clothes are so outlandish he can’t think of anything nice to say; a new father who keeps misplacing his infant son, often unknowingly switching 
him with small animals or a roast turkey; and then there’s drunk Uncle Jack who takes his 12-year old nephew to very inappropriate places; and Karen who crank calls her flatmate, who works at a police emergency phone line, pretending she needs help.
Has this ever happened to you? You want to tell the girl you’ve had a crush on since you were 8 years old that you love her. So, you get drunk, go to her house to reveal your feelings and end up puking all over her little brother’s head. Or have you ever walked around an amusement park carrying the door of your new car? Has your dad ever asked to borrow your laptop to watch porn? Or have you ever punched a fish to death? No, well, maybe we Americans are not so similar to the British after
all.
Jay is an exceptional liar. He lies about everything but mostly he brags about sexual exploits he’s never had. Neil is a break-dancing fool who’s about as smart as a bag of spanners (wrenches.) Everyone thinks his dad is bent (gay.) Simon is a nice, semi-normal bloke who just wants a girlfriend, well, actually, just wants to get laid which is high priority for all the boys.
freely) it was covered with beeps. I was so glad to find at least the first two seasons available on Netflix streaming totally uncensored. Though some might be turned off by the foul language, I found this show hilarious.
The series starts off 1,000 days before the games. The committee deals with problems like choosing who will carry the torch for Britain. They want a public figure or celebrity who will represent the country, someone who will make them proud to be British. They can’t think of anyone! And then there’s the countdown clock that goes backwards, working out the traffic problems, thwarting potential boycott threats and figuring out what to do with the venues after the games. These guys certainly have their hands full. But can they really handle this job?
Again, you can compare it to the UK version of The Office.
Tom Good has just turned 40. He’s tired of the rat race and decides to quit his job as a draftsman designing plastic toys for breakfast cereal, and become self-sufficient. But instead of moving to the country to become a farmer, Tom Good builds his farm in his suburban backyard.
more appropriate.
Even though Tom and Barbara are very good friends with their next door neighbors, Margo and Jerry Leadbetter, their antics are not always well-received. Margo likes to think of herself as an upstanding member of her community and is often embarrassed by what goes on next door. Jerry is more laid back about his neighbors’ farm life. He still works for the same company that Tom left and spends much of his time sucking up to his boss so he can become a senior manager someday.
