20 Best British TV Comedy Characters Of All Time

Hyacinth Bucket is a prime example of someone with an over-inflated sense of hierarchy. She constantly strives to be higher on the social status ladder, immediately evident from when she insists her surname be pronounced ‘Bouquet’ like an arrangement of flowers. Her main goal is to brag about how much better she is than everyone else. This includes boasting about her candlelight suppers (which are never actually seen in motion), emphasising how valuable all of her china possessions are and referring to her bungalow as “The Residence” when sending letters.

The problem is Mrs Bucket actually has no real status and is completely blind to it. Her biggest downfall is her working-class origins which are reflected through her slobby relatives. She avoids them as much as she can and ironically, people who regretfully know Hyacinth literally hide from her where possible if she is present.

Although we couldn’t bear to be around someone like her in real life, Hyacinth’s character was a triumph thanks to the performance of Patricia Routledge, who managed to play a role that was more on the scale of amusing rather than just plain irritating.