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.

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.

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

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.

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.