“You’re old,” I said to myself with regard to my oh-so-not-internet-savvy reposting of a small essay attributed to British actress, Patricia Routledge, in honor of her recent passing. I had been moved by what I thought were Routledge’s words and so felt the impulse to share it. Hours later, a younger colleague informed me that the short “essay” was an A.I. creation. Upon doing some research, however, I learned that some of the content was attributable to Routledge, if not the essay itself. 

Routledge did in fact say, “Growing older is not the closing act. It can be the most exquisite chapter—if you let yourself bloom again. Let these years ahead be your TREASURE YEARS. You don’t need to be famous. You don’t need to be flawless. You only need to show up—fully— for the life that is still yours.” The words of this quote are only part of what makes them so meaningful. What gives Routledge’s words their impact is that we saw her live them out. Patricia Routledge gave credible witness, not to aging gracefully but to aging assertively. 

Patricia Routledge is best known to American audiences for her role as social-climbing Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Boo-Kay) on the British sitcom “Keeping up Appearances” (BBC, 1990-95), shown on PBS in the United States and now available on BritBox. 

As a British Jesuit told me once, Americans liked “Keeping Up Appearances” because they could identify with the aspirational climbing and pretensions of Hyacinth, while still being able to compartmentalize it as British—that is, not exactly like us. Shows like “Appearances” allow American audiences a “far away so close” perspective on social criticism, as we are able to identify aspects of our own cultural defects without having to own them. 

I know for myself, my mother and her sisters had more than a little Hyacinth about them. My mother loves to tell the story about how right before my first Confession, I asked her in all earnestness if chewing with my mouth open was a sin; such was the emphasis she placed on table manners with her children. 

Routledge was a classically trained actress, getting her start on the stage in Liverpool before making her debut on London’s Westend in the late 1950s. She was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, but it was in comedy that she flourished professionally. She began to garner a significant amount of attention on British television in the 1980s for her appearances on comedian Victoria Wood’s TV series, “As Seen on TV,” (BBC, 1985-7) as the comically brittle, English housewife, Kitty, anticipating her turn as Hyacinth some five years later. She also became known for her performances of playwright Alan Bennett’s monologues on his series “Talking Heads” (BBC, 1988). 

It was her extraordinary voice—when speaking as Hyacinth she could reach notes that seemingly only dogs could hear—was foundational to her comedy. She was a trained vocalist, and you can see her musical approach to comedy. Any line of dialogue is delivered as a song, with each word being given its own note. Deceptively agile, Routledge used both small gestures and slapstick pratfalls (her physical comedy in “Appearances” is sublime) to mine even the most banal situations for comedy gold. And the thing is, she did all of it in the latter part of her life. 

Routledge got the role of Hyacinth just shy of 60 and subsequently became a star. At 60 years old. There was no Botox. No facelifts. No diets. Patricia Routledge became a television star and a national treasure in Great Britain looking exactly as old as she was. She followed up her role as Hyacinth with the equally successful BBC detective series, “Hetty Wainthropp Investigates” (BBC, 1995-1998) playing a Northern English housewife who has an existential crisis on her 60th birthday and opens up her own detective agency. 

While Hyacinth served as a mirror to middle-class society and its petty preoccupations and mores, Hetty provided a more uplifting image, especially for those over 50. She stood in defiance of a culture that insists only people under 30 are relevant, that youth and beauty have the most value. Routledge portrayed that with Hetty and lived those same principles in her own life. 

Jake Martin, S.J. is an assistant professor of film studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He received his PhD in Film Studies from Trinity College, Dublin in 2023. His book What’s So Funny About Faith: A Memoir from the Intersection of the Hilarious and Holy was published by Loyola Press in 2012. He has been a contributing writer on film and television for America since 2009 and has written for numerous other publications including Huffington Post, Busted Halo and American Catholic Studies. Jake is also an actor and improvisational comedian whose solo show ”Learning to Pray in Front of the Television“ was an official selection for the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Jake has performed at numerous venues in Chicago and New York