Patricia Routledge - More Than a Bucket Quiz

Answer: Keeping Up Appearances

"Keeping Up Appearances" originally aired on BBC One between 1990 and 1995. It portrayed the struggles of Hyacinth Bucket to appear to belong to the 'gentility', and leave her working class roots behind. The pronunciation of the family surname was only one of the running jokes, along with her penchant for candle-lit suppers, her lazy brother-in-law, Onslow, her senile father, and her wealthy cross-dressing brother-in-law, Bruce.

Answer: Dominic Monaghan

All of these featured in "Hetty Wainthropp Investigates" - Derek Benfield played Hetty's husband Robert, John Graham Davies was the local DCI who worked with her, and Suzanne Maddock played Janet, the love interest of Geoffrey in the latter part of the show. Dominic Monaghan had his first professional appearance playing the part of Geoffrey Shawcross, a young man boarding with the Wainthropps who became Hetty's personal assistant as she turned her penchant for solving minor mysteries into a business.

The show originally aired from 1996 through 1998.

Answer: Steptoe and Son

"Steptoe and Son" focused on the conflict between Albert Steptoe (played by Wilfrid Brambell, whom I always associate with his role as Paul's grandfather in the movie "A Hard Day's Night") and his son Harold (played by Harry Corbett), who aspired to move the family business from junk to antiques.

In the final episode of the 1974 season, "Séance in a Wet Rag and Bone Yard", Patricia Routledge played a medium named Madame Fontana, who held a séance at the Steptoe house. Madame Fontana turns out to be the daughter of a woman whom 'the spirits' tell everyone Albert should marry.

This suggestion turns out to be based on the fact that the mother is under the impression that Albert is wealthy. Harold's skepticism leads to the foiling of the scam, and the Steptoes are left to pursue their lives as before.

Answer: Sydney Poitier

All of these actors had significant roles in "To Sir, With Love", but it was Sydney Poitier who took on the central role of an engineer from the Caribbean (via California) who took up a temporary job teaching in London while he waited to get a job in his primary field of expertise. Near the start of the film, more experienced teachers offered advice to the novice - Clinty was one of those who warn him to be careful - they were fundamentally nice kids, but came from rough backgrounds, and would take advantage of any perceived weakness. Of course, he discovered that he cared far more for helping young people find their way in life than he did for his original career.

Answer: Tony

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre is more commonly called the Tony Award, and is given for excellence in a number of areas for live Broadway theatre shows (with a few regional awards as well). Patricia Routledge shared her award for Best Actress in a Musical with Leslie Uggams, for her performance as Georgina in "Hallelujah, Baby!"; you may also have heard of the other two nominees, Melina Mercouri for "Illya Darling" and Brenda Vaccaro for "How Now, Dow Jones".

"Darling of the Day", which also featured Vincent Price in his first Broadway musical, only ran for 31 performances, making the Tony award even more outstanding as an accomplishment - they tend to go to cast members from more successful shows.

The Oscar is awarded for film, the Grammy for recordings, and the Logie for Australian television.

Answer: Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein's last show, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, had an impeccable pedigree, but it was a massive failure.

In the second act, Patricia Routledge performed a song called "Duet for One (The First Lady of the Land)", in which she portrayed both Julia Grant and Lucy Hayes, recounting between them the details of the vote counting in one of the closest and most contentious elections in US history. Hayes won the 1876 election after losing the popular vote when Congress decided to award him 20 disputed electoral votes. The show was about a theatrical company that was staging a show featuring vignettes of American presidential history, and reflecting on the significance of the events they are reenacting. More or less - it never really settled into a fixed shape due to the short run!

Answer: Jacques Offenbach

"La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein" had a score by Offenbach, and libretto by Menri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy. In three acts and four tableaus, it tells the story of a spoiled young Grand Duchess who finds that life sometimes foils the whims of even the most powerful and privileged. Love intrigues and warfare get entangled, and she ends up marrying the fiance with whom she was originally dissatisfied.

Her resignation to this fact foreshadowed the lyrics of a 1970 song by Steven Stills: "If you can't be with the one you love, honey, love the one you're with."

Answer: Linda Ronstadt

Linda Ronstadt played Mabel, and Kevin Kline portrayed the dashing Pirate King. Both of these actors subsequently repeated their performances on Broadway and in a film version of the production. Patricia Routledge played Ruth, "a Piratical Maid of All Work", the woman responsible for apprenticing poor Frederic to a pirate instead of a pilot, because she was a bit hard of hearing.

The plot of the operetta hinges on the impact of an over-developed sense of duty - Frederic has been apprenticed until his 21st birthday; since he was born on February 29th, that won't happen until he is effectively 84 years old, which puts quite a crimp on his plans to marry Mabel.

However, you won't be surprised to hear that it all works out in the end.

Answer: Laurence Olivier

Sir Laurence Olivier agrees to have his name attached to the award (London's equivalent of Broadway's Tony awards) in 1984; previously they had been known as The Society of West End Theatre Awards. The 1988 version of "Candide", usually referred to as The Scottish Opera version, received much critical acclaim, and was considered the definitive form of the show until the 1999 Royal National Theatre revision. Based on Voltaire's novella about a naive young man moving from unthinking absolute optimism to a more pragmatic approach to life following an amazing series of disillusioning experiences, the show had many different writers, and a history of steady evolution over the years since its first performance in 1956, with a libretto by Lillian Hellman.

Answer: Carnival of the Animals

Saint-Saens's suite consists of fourteen movements, each intended to suggest a different animal. The pieces are full of musical tricks and jokes, and the piece is often performed especially for young audiences, as an introduction to 'classical' music (as is also true of Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" and Britten's "A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra").

The humorous poet Ogden Nash wrote a set of verses to accompany each movement in 1949, and these verses are often recited to accompany live performances.

His quirky sense of humor is a perfect match for the musical games played by Saint-Saens in his work.