It's true: Routledge's grating, falsetto voice as Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced "Bouquet") masked an award-winning singing voice.

In a recent interview with Britain's esteemed Guardian newspaper, Patricia Routledge refers to Hyacinth Bucket, the most famous role of her long acting career, as "the dreadful Mrs. B."

"What Mrs. B's fans may not know," the article says, "is that Routledge has had an acclaimed career in musical Theatre." She even won an Olivier Award in 1988 for her lead role in the operetta "Candide," written by theatrical great Leonard Bernstein.

In fact, Routledge laments the fact that "the dreaded monster" of television took her away from the stage.

It was "Keeping Up Appearances" that did it, at first anyway. She had a long career on television, dating back to a five-episode run on the venerable British soap "Coronation Street" in 1961, but she wasn't a full-time TV actress until she donned the floral-printed dresses and booming voice of Mrs. Bucket.

However, when that series ended in 1995 she stuck with TV, taking on the title role in the mystery comedy "Hetty Wainthropp Investigates." That series still pops up from time to time on North American TV, usually on PBS.

She also had a fairly sizeable role in a 1977 BBC production of the Charles Dickens story "Nicholas Nickleby," which pops up on TV rarely these days, but is available on DVD.

She's gone back to the Theatre since -- the Guardian interview was done for the occasion of her run at the National Theatre in London, reading excerpts from the King James Bible to commemorate its 400th anniversary -- and she says that, at 83 years old, she can be choosy about the roles she takes.

Despite a career of venerable roles on venerable stages, she doesn't complain about being best known as the "dreadful" busybody Hyacinth, saying "it would be churlish of me not to appreciate what it's brought me."

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