Keeping Up Appearances - The Complete Collection [DVD] [2013]

This is so funny from start to finish of every episode worth every penny spent

Delighted with purchase, fast delivery and reasonable priced

got it

really enjoyed the bucket woman oh sorry i mean the bouquet women

Arrived promptly. Happy to be part of collection.Exactly as expected as missed most of series when first aired.

This is a classic British TV show. I do find it very funny and amusing. Although, some scenes can be seen as repeating themselves, it is the humor that makes the scenes different. The entire concept is about a social climber Mrs Bucket who found her way from up from low to middle class. She can be described as obnoxious and annoying, but in my point of view, there is no malicious bone in her body.Back to the set - as English is not my mother tongue, and the language the characters speak is rather "old-fashioned", sometime it was difficult for me to understand. Although, there are subtitles available, those are US ones, which means they don't match with dialogues.Also, it seems to me that these DVDs are not remastered. The quality of video is not as clear as I would have expected. Nevertheless, I do recommend this, if you are into sort of comedy.

I used to watch this on Sunday afternoons with my gran, we used to sit and laugh out loud at Hyacinth and her permanently stunned and bewildered circle of friends and family. Dear Emmet, he's very fond of her you know. The writing and acting is so good, every character is loveable regardless of their flaws. The 'keeping up appearances' seems to work on two levels. On the one hand, Hyacinth struggles to maintain social standing, and on the other, those around her don't seem to have the heart to burst her bubble. Hyacinth may be a snob, but she's no monster. She's kind-hearted and, despite the veneer of social status, there's a genuiness about her; she might like to pretend to Lydia Hawksworth that she owns a Rolls-Royce, but she'd never deliberately or maliciously tell a lie. Long-suffering Richard is her perfect foil and you really feel for him. Early retirement? Poor devil. Layabout Onslow, sex-starved Daisy and maneating Rose are equally loveable and believable. Poor Elizabeth lives in terror of coffee at eleven, and Emmet of being sung at. What makes it funny is that it finds its seam of humour in that peculiarly British trait of being too polite to say anything in the myriad awkward situations that arise. It looks at human flaws and frailties with warmth and compassion, never judging or criticising, just gently nudging and acknowledging them. Hard to believe it's almost thirty years since this show began. I still laugh out loud at it, decades later.

The genius of writer Roy Clarke and glorious performance by Patricia Routledge make this one of the greatest British sitcoms of all time in my opinion. Routledge’s performance as the stereotypical social climber Hyacinth Bucket is superb. Her facial expressions and her reactions to anything that may cause embarrassment are a joy to watch. There’s excellent support from the rest of the cast, especially Geoffrey Hughes as Hyacinth’s nemesis Onslow. Some of the situations are far fetched but that only adds to the fun. Brilliant.