Young Hyacinth

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source: Young Hyacinth

Moviecut—Young Hyacinth

source: Young Hyacinth

I admit that when I first heard that the BBC were planning to revive 'Keeping Up Appearances', my heart sank. My initial thought was, ''Oh, here we go, another rubbish revival!''. Even when I heard that Roy Clarke was planning to devise it as a prequel, set when Hyacinth was a young woman, my hostility did not really subside any. However, being the fair person that I am I decided to give it a chance and to my utmost surprise, I found it to be far better than I expected. How nice it feels to be proved wrong. Set in the late 1950's, Hyacinth ( who is yet to have met Richard ) is servant to the constantly bickering Claude ( he a serial womaniser ) and Dulcie ( her a gin addict ) Cooper-Smith. Daisy ( portrayed by Katherine Pearce ) works as a lock-keeper and is yet to meet her Onslow, Rose ( Katie Redford ) sleeps with anything that moves ( a trait that would not leave her in her later life as was evident in the show's predecessor ) and Violet ( Tamla Kari ) seems to scrape by as a sultry confidence trickster. Meanwhile, the girls' father ( otherwise known as 'Daddy' ) manages to scrape a wage as a brush salesman despite his ever increasing alcoholism ( which Hyacinth tries to pass off to people as the effects of a war wound ). It would appear that their mother has 'ran off with a Yank', a fact which Hyacinth is in denial about, insisting that their mother was 'killed in The Blitz!'. They all live in a cramped, comfortless cottage nearby the canal, where Daddy usually ends up residing following a day on the sauce. Unfortunately, as Hyacinth has seen how the other half live, things are never going to be the same again. For her family, it is the start of a never ending nightmare. Kerry Howard was well cast as Hyacinth. Managing admirably to capture the mannerisms and relish that Patricia Routledge so wonderfully put into her performance in the original show. In fact, in some scenes, Howard's facial expressions bear a strong resemblance to that of a young Patricia Routledge. Mark Addy was hilarious as Hyacinth's sozzled daddy and Katherine Pearce had some good lines as Daisy. Tamla Kari made for a sexy and seductive Violet. Debra Stephenson and Tony Gardiner seemed to be the main driving source of humour. Now it's plain where Hyacinth grandiose dreams of getting a foot on the social ladder stem from. Only Katie Redford failed to convince as Rose. One person who certainly was not willing to give 'Young Hyacinth' a go was Ms. Routledge herself, who has blasted the BBC for being 'desperate' following their decision to revive the show. Kerry Howard has gone on record to regard Routledge's remarks as 'scathing'. On the whole, 'Young Hyacinth' was a handsomely mounted piece with beautiful location shooting, decent acting ( most especially from the beautiful Howard ) and some witty lines from Roy Clarke. Great signs of potential have been displayed which hopefully means it should expand into a series. Funniest bit - Hyacinth's insistence that her mother was 'killed in The Blitz' and not to have 'run of with a Yank' as her father bluntly puts it. ''Well, she did get herself bombed a few times!'', says her father crudely!

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.

"Young Hyacinth" is a live action short film that premiered as the pilot episode of a potentially new series on BBC. Just like Amazon does every year, BBC also brought a handful new pilot episodes to the screen and all these had a connection to older pretty successful shows. As for this one here, the reference is "Keeping Up Appearances". I have never seen that show, so I do not know the characters, including the title character, but you should not have to in order to appreciate a series. In the title of my review, you already see that I was fairly unimpressed. This show is as British as it gets in terms of speaking, dialects, sets and comedy, but the latter isn't working at all. I cannot say I enjoyed the watch at all. The characters seemed interchangeable to me and I struggled finding anybody of these fast-talking young ladies likable. Apart from that, plot points like cheating on one's partner, trying to move up in society and sleazy fathers in boats with young ladies are not exactly what I would consider quality television. I kinda liked "Porridge" (the new one) without being too impressed either, but this one is another weak addition to the BBC's revival of old shows and overall, it has gone pretty wrong for the most part. If they fail, they can at least be creative enough to fail with their new individual stuff instead of giving old shows a bad name because, hands down, nobody who watches "Young Hyacynth" will get interested in checking out "Keeping Up Appearances".

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.

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.

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