Living the Life

Living the Hyacinth Life contains the first half of the last series of British sitcom Keeping Up Appearances, chronicling the shamelessly pretentious middle-class Hyacinth Bucket (comic powerhouse Patricia Routledge), who answers every phone call with her shrieking cry of "Bouquet residence, the lady of the house speaking." Her relentless efforts to be held in higher esteem include buying skis for her bewildered husband Richard (Clive Swift), not so he can actually go skiing, but so that he can have them strapped to the top of his car and look posh. She is perpetually embarrassed by her lower-class sisters Daisy (Judy Cornwell) and Rose (Mary Millar), to say nothing of Daisy's slobbish husband Onslow (Geoffrey Hughes). This fifth series also includes the long-awaited appearance of Hyacinth's more economically successful sister Violet (Anna Dawson), whose married life is an endless squabble. --Bret Fetzer