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.

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.

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

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.