# How "high class" is Hyacinth **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 21, 2008, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527 "2008-02-21T06:35:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/61 "2008-02-22T22:21:48Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] One difficulty is trying to use the short lengths of British series and spread them thinly across an American season. [/quote] Right in general, but PBS is a strange sort of American TV network. They don’t put out many (or even any?) of their own comedies and dramas, and so don’t follow the season schedule of the old traditional networks. For example, PBS will show _Foyle’s War_ or _Miss Marple_ for however long the series goes, whether that’s 4 episodes or 14, and then just switch over to the next one they have lined up. They don’t care about any stinkin’ seasons. And they used to do that with comedies too. Traditionally it’s been on Saturday nights, at least in my area. Above I mentioned _People Like Us_, which I loved, and saw on PBS several years ago. It’s only a handful of episodes, but that wasn’t a problem. They broadcast it anyway, in between other selections. As **TWDuke** says, PBS is still offering up a good variety of British dramas and mysteries. When it comes to the comedies though, they’re just not trying anymore, for whatever reason. (That reason being money somehow, I’m sure.) [QUOTE=GorillaMan] Modern shows will also typically consist of 6-8 episodes, and then another lot a year or so later. So actually, there isn’t that much good stuff at all. Nor even that much bad stuff, hence the endless repetition of antiquities. [/QUOTE] There are still lots of great antiquities they could be showing instead of the current chaff. For example I fondly remember the _Dave Allen_ show from my 1970s childhood (broadcast on a UHF network out of Milwaukee, complete with bad reception). Why don’t they show that? Or God, how about _Yes, Minister_? Would it kill them to buy and broadcast a few episodes of _Yes, Minister_? But no. PBS must have gotten a deal to show _Are You Being Served?_ until the sun turns into a red giant — when hopefully, mercifully, all recordings of it will finally be destroyed. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/62 "2008-02-22T22:25:25Z")
I’m sure it will simply come down to repeat fees, and which shows are the cheapest to recycle over and over. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/63 "2008-02-22T22:52:25Z")
Is BIL Onslow great or what? He wears the same “wifebeater” t shirt, and sleeveless sweater. He smokes and drinks-my kind of guy! Is “Onslow” an upper class name in the UK? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/64 "2008-02-22T22:58:58Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] Is “Onslow” an upper class name in the UK? [/QUOTE] I don’t think I’ve ever heard it in any other context, and certainly never met one, so I’m tempted to say it’s a name devoid of such connotations. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2008, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/65 "2008-02-23T00:50:46Z")
[QUOTE=Miss Purl McKnittington] I think this is the perfect thread to express my disgust that BBC America is currently showing Dancing with the (freaking) Stars for many hours every night. [/QUOTE] Hmm. Tonight, starting at 8pm there’s: coupling coupling that mitchell & webb look (whatever that is) BBC world news coupling coupling that mitchell & webb look a James bond movie followed by a lot of decoracting shows that sound exactly like the ones on our stations. Yeah, the BCC-A is doing a lot to show us a wide variety of great British shows. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2008, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/66 "2008-02-23T01:01:32Z")
I don’t know if it has anything to do with anything, but the current [Lord Onslow](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1506704/maindetails) was one of the hereditary peers who remained in the House of Lords after most of them were beheaded in 1999. I’m not completely sure about the beheading part. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2008, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/67 "2008-02-23T17:37:42Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] I can’t see how he ever would. His distant presence is the linchpin that keeps at least some connection between her artificial world and the reality of the Buckets. [/QUOTE] To me, everything about Sheridan’s character speaks to her continuing disconnect with reality. When will she glom onto the fact that her son is gay, or at least hanging around a rather recherche\* “_Brideshead Revisted_” crowd, sometime at the expense of even ever coming home to see her? And whose connection to her, despite her continual acclimations of an “inborn refinement,” and a “spiritual” connection between the two of them, is to ask for money? - Recherche, as in: 1. Uncommon; rare. 2. Exquisite; choice. 3. Overrefined; forced. 4. Pretentious; overblown, especially 3. and 4. But if you’re actually she saying his character (and his continued absence) shows she’s really only a “Bucket” after all is said and done, never mind. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2008, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/68 "2008-02-23T17:39:32Z")
[QUOTE=5-4-Fighting] But if you’re actually she saying his character (and his continued absence) shows she’s really only a “Bucket” after all is said and done, never mind. [/QUOTE] I think that was what I was saying there! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/69 "2008-02-23T18:01:20Z")
Slightly off-topic, here (I didn’t start it!), but no one’s mentioned _Chef_, with Lenny Henry. How is that thought of in the UK? To me, it has a similar formulaic repetitiveness to _KUA_ but when it aired here in the States on PBS, I’d watch it also. I also got the impression Emmitt was gay and was surprised when I learned he had an ex-wife but then a lightbulb went off and I realized the two are not mutually exclusive at all. 😉 I was very much surprised to learn in the last couple weeks or so that Elizabeth has a daughter, one who, accordinging to Hyacinth, has the perfect right to live with her boyfriend, “in sin and degradation, though she’s not one to judge.” 😛 [QUOTE=Dewey Finn] Pay attention when Onslow’s reading in bed. I think it’s usually some arcane physics text. [/QUOTE] Don’t forget, he also loves television’s _Open University_. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2008, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/70 "2008-02-23T18:06:23Z")
[QUOTE=5-4-Fighting] Slightly off-topic, here (I didn’t start it!), but no one’s mentioned _Chef_, with Lenny Henry. How is that thought of in the UK? To me, it has a similar formulaic repetitiveness to _KUA_ but when it aired here in the States on PBS, I’d watch it also. [/QUOTE] I’ve only got vague recollections of that programme. It’s not one that’s on satellite perma-repeat, and has pretty much been forgotten about. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2008, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/71 "2008-02-23T23:38:05Z")
I remember a great (well, I thought it was great then–I was about 14) Britcom on PBS here in the late 70s called _No, Honestly._ I really liked it. It aired with Benny Hill (about whom enough bad can never be said), _The 2 Ronnies_ (that was funny) and Monty Python. _Fawlty Towers_ came along later, with a drama called _The Nanny_, which I adored. _Upstairs, Downstairs_ went on forever–never could get into that show. The other day I stumbled across something called _Torchwood_–very odd: soap opera meets Coronation Street meets Dallas type thingy. It was meh. I like _How Clean is Your House?_ I wish they would replay the entire All Creatures series–I loved that show (and the books). _The Irish RM_ was pretty good as well. I thought _Coupling_ (the two episodes I’ve managed to see) was very funny. I can’t keep track of the time slots and they seem to jump around (?). I ended up watching the British equivalent of the Academy awards the other night–that was interesting… Sorry, you asked about Hyacinth Bucket. It is a one joke show; I got tired of it after about 4 episodes. Still, it is yards more intelligent than a comparable American sitcom (more byplay and witty dialogue), so there is that. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2008, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/72 "2008-02-23T23:51:02Z")
[QUOTE=eleanorigby] Still, it is yards more intelligent than a comparable American sitcom (more byplay and witty dialogue), so there is that. [/QUOTE] I wonder how much this is a product of the way programmes are presented in much larger contiguous sections, with a 30-minute slot having only one short advert break for a commercial channel, or a single 25 minutes of actual content for the BBC. Or, to put it another way, whether the gag-laugh-gag-laugh routine of American shows has been encouraged by the ability to break the shows down into shorter sections with a less continuous feel. (And maybe therefore the British structure suits PBS well?) ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2008, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/73 "2008-02-24T00:23:01Z")
I don’t know how much credibility this list has, but I thought it was interesting as it ranks US and UK sitcoms together. [QUOTE=Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy] 1 The Phil Silvers Show (US) 2 Seinfeld (US) 3 Fawlty Towers (UK) 4 Porridge (UK) 5 Yes, Minister (UK) 6 Frasier ( US) 7 M_A_S\*H (US) 8 Till Death Us Do Part (UK) 9 Hancock’s Half-Hour/ Hancock (UK) 10 Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (UK) 11 The Larry Sanders Show (US) 12 The Mary Tyler Moore Show (US) 13 The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (UK) 14 The Good Life (UK) 15 Steptoe and Son (UK) 16 Only Fools and Horses (UK) 17 Cheers (UK) 18 The Dick Van Dyke Show (US) 19 Dad’s Army (UK) 20 The Simpsons (US) [/QUOTE] > **[Bilko named best ever comedy](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/sep/30/broadcasting.uknews)** > > The snappiest minds in modern TV comedy surrendered gracefully yesterday to a crafty, bespectacled 1950s conman who created chaos in an American army base. By Martin Wainwright. Icons _I Love Lucy_ and _The Honeymooners_ are absent, but a show that most living Americans have never seen (I would guess) tops the list. Of the UK shows, I’ve seen all of _Fawlty Towers_ and episodes of _Yes, [Prime] Minister_ and _The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin_, and nothing of the others. _Till Death Do Us Part_ and _Steptoe and Son_ were turned into American hits, while _Fawlty Towers_ and _Reginald Perrin_ were turned into flops. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2008, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/74 "2008-02-24T00:47:00Z")
[QUOTE=TWDuke] _Till Death Do Us Part_ and _Steptoe and Son_ were turned into American hits, while _Fawlty Towers_ and _Reginald Perrin_ were turned into flops. [/QUOTE] Okay, I know _Fawlty Towers_ was turned into that execrable John Laroquette show with the hotel, but what was the _Reginald Perrin_ analogue called here? ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2008, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/75 "2008-02-24T00:59:14Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] Okay, I know _Fawlty Towers_ was turned into that execrable John Laroquette show with the hotel, but what was the _Reginald Perrin_ analogue called here? [/QUOTE] _Reggie_ starred Richard Mulligan, better known as Bert on _Soap_. I forgot about the Laroquette show; the one I was thinking of starred Bea Arthur. I just noticed _Cheers_ (UK) on the list. Typo? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2008, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/76 "2008-02-24T01:03:34Z")
[QUOTE=TWDuke] I just noticed _Cheers_ (UK) on the list. Typo? [/QUOTE] Yes! ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2008, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/77 "2008-02-24T03:05:47Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] I wonder how much this is a product of the way programmes are presented in much larger contiguous sections, with a 30-minute slot having only one short advert break for a commercial channel, or a single 25 minutes of actual content for the BBC. Or, to put it another way, whether the gag-laugh-gag-laugh routine of American shows has been encouraged by the ability to break the shows down into shorter sections with a less continuous feel. (And maybe therefore the British structure suits PBS well?) [/QUOTE] I think that Britcoms are just that—dependent upon British situations and well drawn characters. American sitcoms have gotten very lazy and dumbed down over the years into bratty kids delivering one liners and dumb adults doing stupid things, that is, obnoxious characters saying snarky things with very little plot to sustain them. IMO, British comedy relies more heavily on wit than American does. I like that. The structure of the commercials might add to the effect, but overall I think it’s just laziness on the part of the writers (and also, to be fair, the risk averse nature of network TV). I think that MASH, Frasier, MTMm DVD show all can stand up to Britcoms, so it’s not like we never get it right or do it well… ---
**Author:** ![bathsheba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@bathsheba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bathsheba)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2008, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/78 "2008-02-24T10:58:45Z")
Aaaaaaaaah. The Good Life. What’s not to love? I had a goat called Mrs Bucket. She gave birth to two kids. I called them Daisy and Onslow. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2008, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/79 "2008-02-24T16:16:47Z")
Forgot to mention how much I loved AbFab. Just thought I’d throw that in there… ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527/80 "2008-02-24T16:24:50Z")
[QUOTE=eleanorigby] Forgot to mention how much I loved AbFab. Just thought I’d throw that in there… [/QUOTE] Sweetie-darling! **supervenusfreak** and I both love it, too! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-class-is-hyacinth/438527.md?page=5)