The Daily Telegraph reports that the BBC may commission a prequel to Keeping Up Appearances. Tentatively titled Young Hyacinth, it would focus on Hyacinth’s life as a 19-year old maid to an upper-middle-class family.
I’m thrilled by this news–KUA is one of my all-time favorite sitcoms. Despite being ruthlessly formulaic, it was consistently funny throughout its run (sometimes British Brevity can be a good thing). The idea of a prequel has a lot of promise. We never learned much about Hyacinth’s backstory during the show’s original run. It was hinted that she may have grown up in an environment similar to Daisy and Onslow’s crumbling council flat, and it would be interesting to see how she became a maven of poshness. This gives series creator Roy Clarke a lot of freedom to develop Hyacinth’s backstory without resorting to retcons.
There’s no guarantee that YH will actually make it to broadcast, but the fact that they’ve asked Clarke to pen a script is encouraging. At the moment, it’s scheduled to be a one-off, but there’s talk that it might eventually become a series if viewers like it enough. The fact that KUA is currently the BBC’s most popular export might provide added inducement.
Codex Lochianus 