Every New Year on the advice of her Government H.M. The Queen hands out honors to the great and the good who have made a signification contribution to the Britain in some shape of form. There is always some sort of controvesy as politicians cannot resist mis-using the system to reward major financial donors/supports. Plus asides from that there is also some dismay/confusion when the List includes some C (0r D) List celebrity who is given one of the highest accolades whilst real worthwhile recipients are handed the very basic of Awards.

Occasionally there at the top of Honors List there is the name of a beloved Brit who is such a national treasure that has everyone cheering.  In this week’s list that person is the wonderfully talented Patricia Routledge who was finally made a Dame of the British Empire . Whilst most of the world knows Dame Patricia solely from her award-winning performance of the insufferable snobby Hyacinth Bucket/Bouquet  in TV’s smash hit comedy Keeping Up Appearance, there is so much more to this 87 year actress’s packed lengthy resume.  For example, few people know that she won a Tony for Best Actress in a Musical back in 1966.

In the UK she truly earned her gay icon status with her role as Kitty in the Victoria Wood TV Show.  Her rapid-fire monologues are hysterically funny and deliciously, and although full of very British references, are so worth watching regardless of the fact if you understand every single line.

Below is the video of her first Kitty appearance which she has to cut short to race back to have tea with her neighbors .  A couple of really nice ‘boys’ who know everything there is to know abut Mikhail Baryshnikov …….  The second clip is of Dame Patricia having a great deal of fun singing why she wants to be in Opera.