Young Hyacinth

[Caran]

I lasted about 10 minutes. It bears no relation to the real Hyacinth. Didn't look or sound like her.
The man playing her father was a large chap whereas in the real programme "daddy" was a little runt of a man.
So don't understand why they made it like that.

[Mamyalynne]

It didn't gel agreed.

[hc4361]

Adult Hyacinth had an affected speech pattern - she would not have talked like that when she was growing up, she were common as muck dragged up by her drunkard father and this is what the programme portrayed.
Young Hyacinth captured her mannerisms really well, I thought, and Daddy was as bonkers as the much older Daddy. His size didn't register with me at all.

[Buenchico]

I didn't watch it but I noticed earlier that the Radio Times website described Kerry Howard's performance as a "charmingly faithful tribute to Patricia Routledge’s character". It was Roy Clarke's script that the writer felt lacked lustre:
http://www.radiotimes.com/tv-programme/e/fbv2xp/keeping-up-appearances--young-hyacinth

The idea of her coming from a poor background, but then gaining social pretensions through working as a maid, certainly rang true for me though. My mother was born into a working class family in what was then the poorest borough in the country. (Limehouse, London). However she went 'into service' with a Harley Street surgeon and, from then on, everything in her life had to be done "as it was in the big house".

Despite the fact that I was brought up on a council estate, in a house where there was little money for heating, etc, my mother made it very clear that I should always look down on "poor people" (it never occurred to me that we were actually 'poor people'!) and, far more importantly, upon "common people". She had a 'telephone voice' which Roy Clarke could have used to base Hyacinth Bucket's "the lady of the house speaking" line upon, despite the fact that she could only use it after she'd fed her 4d into the slot in the phone box across the road from our house.

[Cloverjo]

I love Kerry Howard, but can't imagine her as Hyacinth. (I didn't watch the programme.)
I remember when you could make a call for 2p -or a succession of 2ps - from a phone box.

[Jackdaw33]

My mother had a 'telephone voice'. It was hilarious.

[Buenchico]

I think a lot of people put on a different voice when using a phone in those days, JD33, often without realising that they were doing it. (My mother always denied having a 'telephone voice', even though I broke into fits of giggles whenever I heard it).

I know that I've got a 'microphone voice' (used when I was presenting programmes on BBC Radio Sheffield and, more recently, when making announcements over the PA at a railway station) but that's a deliberate choice [in the hope that it makes my voice a little easier to listen to for those who have to suffer it]. Most people who had (or, rarely, may still have) 'telephone voices' never seemed to notice their affectation.

[ummmm]

I still think most people have telephone voices.

[Jackdaw33]

It was 4d in the early 50s but you could talk as long as you liked on a local number. Anything more than 40 miles and you had to go via the operator.

[Buenchico]

Really, Ummmm?

The only way that I can tell that someone (whom I can't see) is talking on their mobile, rather than talking to someone who is actually with them, is because of the lack of an audible response (or occasionally, I have to admit, because they speak far louder). I don't hear them 'going posh', as my mother used to do.

[Buenchico]

It was 4d right up until 1971, JD33, and then 2p.

[Jackdaw33]

I know I had a teaching/lecturing voice.

[Jackdaw33]

Actually, when STD came in in the mid 60s it went down to 3d but you only got a limited time.

[Cloverjo]

It's now 60p for about 10 seconds.

[Mamyalynne]

I recall the palaver of trying to make a reverse charge call and the earache you got afterwards when you got home.

[Jackdaw33]

If you made a trunk call every so often the operator would interrupt with, "Hello, caller. Please insert another shilling".

[ummmm]

Chris - I don't think we go posh anymore but our voices certainly change if we don't know who is calling us.

The majority of the time we can see who's calling.

[Jackdaw33]

I was one of the first people to get Caller Display. Folk thought I was telepathic!

[Cloverjo]

Mamya, yes I remember that. Can you still make reverse charge calls?

[Jackdaw33]

Yes, but it's £6.00 connection fee plus the call cost.

[Buenchico]

>>> It's now 60p for about 10 seconds

Not true, Cloverjo.

The minimum charge is, indeed, 60p but that's made up of a 40p connection charge and two 10p units of time. Since each 10p buys you 15 minutes (to any 01, 02 or 03 number), you get a full half an hour for your 60p (and each quarter of an hour after that only costs an additional 10p):
http://www.bt.co.uk/pricing/current/Call_Charges_boo/3545_d0e5.htm

So, for longer calls, using BT payphones can work out far cheaper than using many PAYG tariffs on mobile phones. A 1 hour UK call on my Vodafone PAYG mobile (unless I bought 'bundles', which I don't usually bother with) would cost me £18.00. The same time in a phone box would cost just 80p.