Keeping Up Appearances’ Richard Bucket, aka Clive Swift, was a cunt

A new DL icon!

I have had sufficient.

I love it. He was being old and ornery and not grateful in the slightest, like 99% of people that age.

He's a really great actor. He came off as so nice playing Richard Bucket--obviously a lot of hard work on his part!

Oooh, RICHARD.

He's happily dead.

That interviewer really got it in the face. I hope Clive avoided the eyes.

What first class jackass!

I remember reading about this years ago (maybe on the DL) and being UTTERLY scandalized.

MARY!!!

THIS is what I come to DL for!

In the mid-90s he came to the PBS station in NYC during one of their old school telethons, as a special guest. He hung out in the studio for hours in a director’s chair and chatted periodically with an interviewer while people answered telephones and held up tote bags. The whole point of him being there was the popularity of KUA on PBS at the time. He came across as quite lovely and British, and I remember thinking he seemed like such a nice man. This is shocking to read.

Mildly refreshing in an old-school way.

For some reason, it made me smile when the interviewer corrected him about Titanic sinking in the 1920s, and he replied, "Fine, even earlier." It's a small thing, but I like that you can almost feel the irritation over something so petty.

r11 He may have just REALLY hated Dr Who in an Alec Guinness v Star Wars kind of way.

Clive Swift has a reputation of being a prick, and you can see it in any and every interview he does. Another actor that resents the very show that made him well known, though he had been acting for a while.

What I find interesting is that Patricia Routledge, who has a sterling reputation as a wonderful and kind woman, continued to do plays with Swift even when they were on hiatus from 'Keeping Up Appearances.' And in their appearances together on talk shows they come across as very friendly. It's TV I guess.

In Judy Cornwall's (Daisy in KUA) autobiography, "Adventures of a Jelly Baby: A Memoir", she takes some subtle swings at Swift. If I remember correctly, though, she takes some swings at other members of the cast, including Josephine Tewson (Elizabeth) and Dame Routledge herself. I'd read about other's issues with Tewson, but never Routledge.

(It may have been a Judy Cornwall problem.)

Interesting about Tewson, r15. What were her issues?

R15, do you still have her book? I know it’s a big ask, but I’d like specifics.

Clive Swift was an actor who appeared in the popular television series "Keeping Up Appearances." And now he's dead.

OP au courant!

He's long been known as one of the biggest assholes to ever exist. (Now dead, to the relief of many.)

Pat Routledge is a professional beyond compare but even she couldn't deal with his cuntery after a while.

I’d heard him (and Routledge) say that the character of Richard “on page, just wasn’t written!” Repeatedly.

They made it sound like he was a comedic genius or something. I figured he hated doing it, but the money was great. I had no idea he was such a prick.

I'll look for the book. I remember that other than her mentions of KUA, the book wasn't very interesting, and that she was very actor-y. I'll admit that I was looking specifically for KUA stories and details when I bought the book.

If I find the details, I'll report back. (Internet searches may find the cites, or similar comments.)

Seems like a guy I’d like to hang out with at a gay bar. Or maybe read his DL posts.

I did find this interview where Cornwall makes it out to be one big happy family, but that's' not what I remember from her book.

What did he say in that article that was so bad?

Richard should have divorced Hyacinth's ass and on the way out break every piece of her Royal Doulton with the hand-painted periwinkles.

Well he wasn’t wrong.

He was an Olivier sized ego in a John Inman world.

R14,

Dames and knights are referred to by their title, then their first name, e.g Dame Patricia.

Hi ex-wife was the novelist Margaret Drabble. Her second novel, "The Garrick Year" (1964), is an autobiographical story of a a young woman's messy marriage to an unfaithful actor whose career is on the rise. It's an easy, funny read.

R29

I think you meant me, R15, re: Dame Patricia (not R14).

Mea Culpa

The cast of KUP didn’t have very nice things to say about Patricia in later years either, basically calling her stuck up who wouldn’t speak to them.

Patricia also trashed the Keeping Up Appearances show creator and writer. I think they never met the entire run of the show and basically rewrote the scripts themselves on set. He never saw what worked or didn’t because he simply never came around.

I always thought Clive was hot. This is what happens when you’re married to that cunt Hyacinth.

To R26- I do have 3 of those Royal Doulton large bowls with the Periwinkles. I use them all the time.

r34 = Daisy

Hi everyone, and sorry to butt in, but is this the Chinese takeaway?

Did Blake Lively go to the Clive Swift School of Media Training?

Dame Pat was too busy munching rug to pay Clive much mind.

Clive in his undershirt was a furry sonuvagun. Looked good to me.

I love how Pat is all religious and all about church and worship. Give me a break.

Clive is my kinda man

Shorthand.

Who the fuck knows shorthand?

What a silly old cunt.

Swift wrote to 'The Guardian' to correct Simon Callow calling his (Swift's) place of education a 'minor public school.' CS's letter set out reasons for the word 'minor' being misapplied. Seems as though Swift was channelling his inner Hyacinth about vital matters of social status.

I’m guessing Simon Callow was never invited to one of Clive’s candlelight suppers.

He also played the henpecked Biahop Proudie on Barchester Chronicles, with Geraldine MacEwan doing the controlling wife bit.

In “Frenzy” Clive kind of resembled Callow.

I’m waiting till I hear from Sheridan before I have a solid opinion about this.

He looked smelly

He played an asshole on an episode of Inspector Morse.

I wonder if he had some dementia or maybe he was just over it all at the point when the interview was conducted.

I didn't realize he was on Inspector Morse r50

British cranks are the best cranks.

R28 Spot on.