The Hour

Keeping Up Appearances is one of the best and most popular British sitcoms of all time. The show ran for five years between 1990 and 1995 on BBC1 and was ranked 12^th in a survey of Britain’s 100 Best Sitcoms.

With its brilliant tact and humour, the comedybecame the first ‘Britcom’ to be aired in the USA, and it has since been transmitted worldwide and is still regularly shown on cable television in the UK.

Almost 15 years after it disappeared from its prime-time slot on television, the Comedy Theatre Company has lovingly revived this timeless and popular classic as a stage show. English actor and comedian Gareth Hale – one half of comedy duo Hale and Pace - is playing the part of Onslow and Rachel Bell, who starred in Grange Hill and The Darling Buds of May, has taken on the role of Hyacinth.

Gareth thinks that it would be great to put some of his own personality into Onslow: “It’s good to be able to put an element of your stamp on it but the dialogue is so tightly written, so it’s good for the audience to be waiting for Onslow to give a put-down line and then be trounced by Hyacinth.”

English actress Patricia Routledge played Hyacinth Bucket in the TV series, a woman who pretended to be upper-class but wasn’t. She insisted her surname be pronounced ‘Bouquet’ and looked down her nose at her sister Daisy and her bone-idle husband Onslow, who lived in a rundown house with Hyacinth’s dad.

Rachel said: “It’s brand new and written specifically for the stage by Roy Clarke - who wrote the TV series - and it’s all set in a church hall rather than Hyacinth’s house. None of the original cast members have been to see it but we’d be so nervous if they came along!”

Keeping Up Appearances will be showing at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow from September 6-11 7.30pm, with matinees performed on Thursday, September 9 and Saturday, September 11 at 2.30pm.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• For more information or to buy tickets view the Theatre Royal’s website

• Find out more about the Keeping Up Appearances sitcom