Happy 93rd Birthday to Dame Patricia Routledge

Only if that dishy vicar will be in attendance as well.

My late parents (both of whom died in 2005) absolutely LOVED this show! They both would laugh out loud watching it! I bought my mother the complete DVD set for Mother's Day - I have it now. Each episode is a gem!!

And only if he still looks like this.

She'll always be Clinty Clintridge to me.

But, will it be an ordinary candlelit supper like the ones that are offered by the lower class people at number 23 (can you believe that those pretentious chavs have been burgled TWICE in THREE MONTHS?), or will it be a security and alarm housewarming candlelit supper to celebrate that you've got your own custom made superior security installation for better class premises?

There are distinctions even in THAT, my dear!

She tries to hide the fact that she was once a servant.

Dame Patricia Routledge will be eating pussy and having a scissor fest in honor of the occasion.

Patricia is gay.

Who is her GF?

At this age, Dame Pat is not eating pussy. That muffin shop closed long ago, dolls.

R9, she might still have had a longterm partner.

Who was she with?

Was Pat an asexual lesbian?

[quote] Patricia is gay. Who is her GF?

Several years ago, IMDb listed that she lived with a female painter. It’s since been scrubbed so who knows what the truth is.

She was in love with Rex Smith in Pirates so I kind of doubt it.

[quote] She was in love with Rex Smith in Pirates so I kind of doubt it.

With the long blonde hair, she thought Rex was a woman playing a man.

Pat is the biggest Lez that ever Lezzed.

My parents loved her. She was in a musical in the late 60’s /early 70’s where she played the first lady. No clue the name of it but Mother thought it was the greatest performance she experienced on bway. (My parents saw everything ). Anyway : she’s a dyke. Been with her lady love for decades. Pam something. Patty?

Wasn't she meant to be in a relationship with Pat Butcher from Eastenders?

Guess we know who the BUTCH one was

Some say Betty Boothroyd former Speaker of the House of Commons

IMDB said Phyllis Claymore

One of me faves:

Yes, Jeremy Gittins was quite dishy in his day. Can't say blame Rose for throwing herself at him, one could do with a slice of that oneself....

How about that then?

Love ya Mrs. Bucket!

It's Bouquet!

[quote] My parents loved her. She was in a musical in the late 60’s /early 70’s where she played the first lady. No clue the name of it but Mother thought it was the greatest performance she experienced on bway. (My parents saw everything ).

That would be Leonard Bernstein and Alan Jay Lerner's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Legendary flop with a legendary musical number for Ms. Routledge, "Duet for One," where she played departing First Lady Julia Grant and incoming First Lady Lucy Hayes at the same time with the flip of a wig. Audience goes berserk for it here, and people who saw her do it talk about it as one of the greatest numbers they've ever seen.

She had the misfortune of appearing in multiple flops in the US, and always being the saving grace of every one of them, including Darling of the Day, for which she won a Tony, despite a run of about a month. She left The Pirates of Penzance after the run in the park as she was committed to a rep season in the UK. It would have been her one Broadway hit.

R21 oh my! Those two needed to go at it!

She's with Moira Stuart.

She's with Her Majesty the Queen.

The Queen needs help these days. You see, she doesn't know her ABCs.

Mind the pedestrian, Richard!

Patricia, Moira Stuart, and Pat Butcher have been a throuple for decades.

But who fists whom's pussy?

Here's a somewhat recent pic of Jeremy Gittens, he's 66.

He's married to an actress named Sara Hollamby. There's not much info about her out there.

R31 Goodness, he looks handsome as hell, and especially for 66!

Angelina Jolie's first husband was one of Rose's conquests.

We don't know when that portrait was taken, do we?

I just love me some Dishy Vicar!

The part of Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd was written with her in mind but she turned down both the original Broadway production and the original London production, saying she found the material "distasteful. "

Anyone mention her there brilliant performances in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads?

She said that as a child adults used Sweeney Todd to scare then to behave or else he would get them. So she did find it unpleasant.

I had no idea who she was when I first went to Pirates in the Park and I found her wonderful. It was one of those who is this person?! moments. I went back again and she was just as wonderful. The Broadway production when it opened without her wasn't nearly as good.

Ms. Routledge had four chances of having a success on Broadway but, for whatever various reasons for each show, it was never meant to be.

Darling of The Day, for which she won the Tony; 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, in which by all accounts she was the best thing in it and should have been nominated for another Tony; Love Match, a musical about Queen Victoria which has a very good score but somehow never made it to New York; Say Hello To Harvey, a musicalization of the play Harvey in which she portrayed Donald O'Connor's sister Veda - she naturally had one big showstopper and the show died in Toronto.

Broadway's loss and our loss.

Plus another missed opportunity: by all accounts, she was brilliant in the London Noises Off, but didn't come over with it.

Sondheim and Prince knew what they were doing. In addition to having a wonderful, classically trained singing voice, Routledge has one of the most brilliant senses of comic timing I've ever seen on a stage. Thank God they had Angela to turn to when Routledge declined.

[quote]She left The Pirates of Penzance after the run in the park as she was committed to a rep season in the UK.

Our loss is the world's gain. She went back to London to begin readings of "Noises Off."

I saw her in the West End in the touring production of "The Importance of Being Earnest." She was perfect as Lady Bracknell. Late in the play as all is being revealed, the governess Prism tries to sneak out and Bracknell yells, "Prism" to call her back. It was Patricia Routledge at her finest.

[quote]Angelina Jolie's first husband was one of Rose's conquests.

Jonny Miller sure was.

Here she is in The Beggar's Opera. I think it gives some idea of how she may have approached Lovett in Sweeney Todd.

Routledge would have have had no problem with the vocal demands of Mrs. Lovett but Angela said singing that part was the hardest thing she ever had to do onstage. She said she had to live like a nun and keep herself in tip top physical shape to do it eight times a week.

Hyacinth can’t sing but Patricia has beautiful voice. Wondeful album.

[quote]She said she had to live like a nun and keep herself in tip top physical shape to do it eight times a week.

This was obviously before Patti LuPone and Lea Salogna didn't do matinees. Although, Mary Mary Martin and Robert Preston didn't do matinees of "I Do, I Do" which is a much easier show. So Lansbury was a real trouper.

Thanks for posting the Beggar's Opera clip, r44. It was wonderful and yes, what a Mrs. Lovett she would have made!

Brits live a long time. Is it all the tea?

Didn't Martin and Preston initially do 8 shows a week?

Consummate actress, comedienne, singer, and all round performer.

Late Nigel Hawthorne and his partner Trevor Bentham often put together fund raising benefits for their local hospice (North Hertfordshire hospice), and being as both were in theatre would ask around circle of performers they knew to perform. Patricia Routledge agreed and brought down house with her version of "I Want To Sing In Opera".

Many came up to Mr. Hawthorne afterwards remarking that they didn't know Ms. Routledge could sing. His response was "ohh yes"!

Those unaware of Ms. Routledge's vocal talents largely knew her from television, especially KUA. It is the mark of a good to excellent classically trained singer in that he or she can do so off key very well.

Patricia Routledge got her start with television comedy doing "Kitty" skits on Victoria Wood show.

If you watch carefully you'll see beginnings of Hyacinth Bouquet....

In these skits you can see Ms. Routledge grow in her comedic timing and delivery. She knows the material and becomes more at ease with herself and character, taking breaths on the laugh and so forth.

By third skit Ms. Routledge had hit her stride. This after at first not being keen on doing the show and Kitty at all. In interviews Ms. Routledge felt the idea was silly; she didn't see being a sit down/stand up comic , or a little darling Ronnie Corbett was going to go over well.

Total turn around from Hyacinth Bucket and comedy was Patricia Routledge's performance in A Woman of No Importance", part of a series of Alan Bennett monologues.

We watch as this woman so consumed with minding everyone else's business, and assuming herself to be of great importance slowly dies of cancer.

At start Miss Schofield isn't a very likable character. We all know at least one person like her, and try to avoid if possible. But stick with monologue and you begin to feel sorry for the woman, and by end likely are having a bit of a cry for her as well.

Not a candlelit supper but a slightly less formal event: an Indoor/Outdoor Barbecue and Finger Buffet (pronounced “boo-fay”).