Why does no one ever tell Hyacinth off?

Middle-class people don't actually tell off their neighbors, dear.

They are too polite.

Hyacinth was a big woman and also looked like she would cut a bitch. I wouldn't cross her.

additionally, They should have told her, Sheldon is gay

That's "Sheridan," R4.

As for why nobody told her off... it's a British thing. Be polite and maintain decorum above all else.

Mrs Bucket (pronounced Bouquet, dear) would have glared at you to death for your impertinence.

OP, it was basically bad writing, but it is very common. The show would have been better if she had a foil. As it was, she program was extremely repetitious. It really only came to life when she got to play against her lower class family. She need someone who could put her in her place, but perhaps enjoyed playing her and leading her on. Basically, she needed a Mapp to her Lucia.

Pat told off Hyacinth by refusing to do any more episodes. And wouldn't do a Reunion.

Mrs. Councilman Nugent got a few swipes in.

I always thought Elizabeth, Daisy, and our Rose functioned as foils, r7.

I really am not able to find fault with the show. Hyacinth may have put on airs but she never forget her origin. When family needed her, she always rallies to their aid, usually in secret, but she did rally. She wanted so badly to rise above her social standing, as many do. I think the show was loved because we all know someone like her. I didn't realize I knew someone like her, until I saw the show!

She did nothing wrong.

R10, then you really don't get the definition of a foil. Elizabeth is not a foil. Onslow is a foil. Rose is sometimes a foil, but most often is not. Mrs. Councill-OR Nugent seemed to have originally been intended as a foil, but that idea was dropped. They really should have added a head of the Women's Institute for her to but heads with.

Butt heads with

Fuck! Grr! I tell her off every week! Forgetting about me?

Onzlo was her polar opposite.

Same reason none of us tell my mother off!

Richard actually lost his cool and yelled at her in one episode (forget which one) ...

Because she was always proper and before the late 90s and reality TV and online commentary, people at least pretended to be polite. Different era - especially in U.K. My mother still lives in this era. Unfortunately - or fortunately - we live in the era of Big Brother. Amazing how the world has changed in 25 years.

She did get told off a lot on the phone presumably and Richard did loose his cool. It was a comedy.

I relate because my mother behaves that way but everyone just rolls their eyes at it. Not worth getting upset about. And we all chuckle behind her back.

And there are a lot of henpecked husbands out there who are exactly like Richard - and family members who put up with crazy matriarchal sisters who assume the role of manager of the family and events. These people are my family - for better or worse. But we accept family with all their flaws and strengths.

My Auntie is a lot like Hyacinth (and my family is British). She’s a raging bitch and all my family are either crying about the way she’s treating them or steaming with red faces. They’d rather die though than tell her what a cow she is. They wouldn’t even know how to go about it. It’s totally a middle class social graces thing.

It's always the same bits over and over again, every episode. She says something ridiculous in the hallway and Richard looks long-suffering. She gets on the phone with Sheridan and makes clear she has no idea she's gay. She says something horribly snobby to the postman, and glares at him, but he says nothing back. She pops over to Elizabeth's and says something so high-handed that makes Elizabeth such a trembling mess that she practically has a heart attack.

Over and over and over again. That was Dataloungers love this show so much, just like they love "Golden Girls." It's mental comfort food, and almost every episode is exactly the same.

Back in the late 90's I used to see a clone of RICHARD from Keeping Up Appearances at g lounge in Chelsea. He couldn't get arrested in g lounge. I would stand there thinking he should go to Townhouse on the upper east side. There the gay minnows would swarm around him.

It would have cost you your invites to her candlelight suppers.

Same reason nobody ever tells off the Royal Family even though everyone sees right through them.

Mrs. Bucket would advise that OP should have written "tell off Hyacinth," not "tell Hyacinth off."

There was an episode where Richard went off at her, and she sulked about it.

Agree it’s repetitive and not overly funny. Perfect example is the dog bark that surprises her EVERY time she walks up to Daisy and Omslows house. Wholly expected but still chuckle.

The familiarity and mockery of middle class values makes it comfort TV - especially on a Saturday night when we eldergays stay in and have a glass of wine and reminisce about our younger days and the way the world used to be. Similar to Golden Girls - which is funnier.

If someone from an upper-middle-class or upper-class background had told her off for being a grubby little climber, it would have been tragic rather than funny.

But really, Hyacinth made it a point to never associate with the sort of trash who tell others off. Better than way.

Perhaps nobody on Hyacinths social level saw the merit in telling her off OP.I mean,it wasn't likely Hyacinth would ever change.So they tolerated her candlelight suppers and illusions of grandeur. Or perhaps,watching her shenanigans ,they found humor.So they let her exist...for their own petty enjoyment.

Her antics weren't coming from a place of malice... and they knew her background and probably understood her insecurities and lack of self-awareness.

Richard said she was kind and loving. She did all her wifely duties very well. She cooked well, cleaned well, always presented herself well. Outside of the sack it was perfect. Richard said on one occasion that after Sheridan was born the sex life died off. But that is not an uncommon marital complaint.

Even in the episode about the riverside picnic, Hyacinth was right in there with Richard rowing the boat, while Elizabeth let Emit row and the Vicar's wife let the Vicar do all the rowing.

Hyacinth said "Richard you know I love my family, especially this time of year when it gets dark early," and would always come to their aid.

In one episode Richard did tell Hyacinth off, when Hyacinth was trying to force a man from a phone booth. Richard told her to stop bothering him, wait her turn and then to be quiet and get in the car.

Rose would stand up to Hyacinth, especially the first actress who portrayed Rose as dark and moody and brooding, who seemed to love men because it was an addiction. The next actress portrayed Rose as less those things and more goofy, silly and a free spirit who loved men joyfully, instead of being addicted to them.

As Hyacinth said, when Richard commented that the liked Rose, "Of course you like Rose, all men like Rose. That's her trouble."

Mary Millar's Rose struck me as more of a drama queen. Shirley Stelfox's Rose was more of a sexy earth mother type.

Speaking as a gay man, I'll take Mrs. Slocombe's pussy any day.

The fact that people are intimidated by Hyacinth is part of the premise, the schtick. The vicar is terrified of her, and Elizabeth's brother also avoids her whenever possible. It's exaggerated, not realistic.

I'm a Brit living in the US, and honestly people are polite here too. Here in my town in NJ no one ever really calls people on their shit either.

Except once my usually polite bestie (originally from Staten Island) called out some cunt for pretending not to remember her for the third time at a cocktail party. That's when I knew we had to be friends forever.

My mum was a bit Hyacinth like, but with a fantastic sense of humour. In her last few years she didn't give a shit though, and let her working class Yorkshire flag fly.

The old Rose was deeper but the new Rose was more fun - and prettier.

[quote]Mary Millar's Rose struck me as more of a drama queen. Shirley Stelfox's Rose was more of a sexy earth mother type.

They both died of ovarian cancer.

R39 I didn’t know. How sad.

R33 well put

[quote]Speaking as a gay man, I'll take Mrs. Slocombe's pussy any day.

Of course you would. You'd end up with a rainbow flag of pubic hairs in your teeth after a few weeks.

The vicar’s wife was kind of a bitch. She was so needlessly jealous of him speaking to any other woman.

Was it really r43? Dishy Vicar was a pretty apt description of him at the time the show was filmed. When you know your significant other is the hottest one in the room, insecurities rear their ugly heads. Even if deep down you know he or she won't stray.

[quote]There was an episode where Richard went off at her, and she sulked about it.

"Richard SAVAGED me!"

She got told off a few times during the show, but no extended dressing down. The point is that she managed to get herself in embarrassing situations by overreaching. She was her own worst enemy.

Onslow got her good I think in the first season, "Quit your noise you daft, bitch! That goes for you, too, dog!"

On the QE2 episodes a dentist helping Richard goes, "I was just helping this poor man with all this luggage. And he appears to have one piece of baggage too many!"

Hyacinth clothes: were dropped waist floral chiffon dresses popular among women of a certain age and class in the early 1990s?

They still are. For well-bred ladies...

Is it an example of over 50s semi-formal clothing of the era?

Hyacinth is a bit like Erna?

[quote]It's always the same bits over and over again, every episode.

This matters less when you need to wait a week between episodes. The familiarity of the jokes is far more enjoyable a week apart rather than one after the other the way we watch television now.

Same with all the discussion on Golden Girls continuity errors. You're rarely going to remember what happened three-and-a-half years ago in the era before streaming and internet forums.

I hated the way Emmett and the vicar and his wife slagged off Hyacinth behind her back.

The dishy vicar is, indeed, for a vicar, dishy.

In R54's photo, that vicar looks very French.

It's a 90s thing.

She really did care about her family and had no malice. The people who sneered behind her back were much worse.

r3

Remember on the golf course when she beat up the thugs and got offered a job.

People on the phone, trying to order Chinese takeaway, told her off all the time.

I guess if you can't get your spicy prawn balls, you get nasty.

Of course Hyacinth saw no practical use to stick her phone up her jumper amongst other suggested places.

I had no trouble putting the bitch in her place