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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 75206" data-attributes="member: 23">Series One has ended and I've moved onto the second.The first episode of the second series is a great example of very little happening being compelling viewing. It's simply all about Hyacinth's feeling she has a right to know what is happening at her neighbour's house. Never mind that Richard needs to get to work in order for them to live comfortably. Or even that Richard simply isn't interested in why there's a strange man at Elizabeth's. Because Hyacinth cannot stand being ill-informed he gets drawn into this daft routine. This awareness that the clock is ticking added a nice tension to the wire on which Routledge did her frenetic dance. And this is the broadest we've seen her so far in the series. Gone are the subtleties. Hyacinth sings operatically in people's faces; gurns for all she's worth; gesticulates as though directing aircraft and goes way OTT demonstrating how Richard can to convince the neighbours he's forgotten something.<img src="https://68.media.tumblr.com/a87e76a5d69636a6fced865d047c0fad/tumblr_mxg589J8FN1t5hv62o1_250.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/073/955/b47.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />It's quite different to the energy she had in the first series. One can easily imagine that Routledge has drawn energy from seeing the success of the previous year's episodes and knowing that she is leading a phenomenon. Whether that would be a good thing or not is subjective, of course (I think not), but it feels that the ante has been upped a little here.The two new additions to the main cast work very well:Clive Griffin as Emmet feels as though he's been here the whole time. His introduction to Hyacinth brought the added element of seeing an objective, uninitiated newcomer thrust into Hyacinth's mad world. The character seems to have been introduced to serve a function: with Elizabeth living alone and it already established that she comes to Hyacinth on cue rather than the other way round, there's now a reason to see inside Elizabeth's home. Elizabeth and Emmet can now act - up to a point - as a kind of Greek chorus - two sane people occasionally commenting on the antics next door. And Emmet being a musician taps into Hyacinth's certainty that she is destined for greatness in this area. One could argue that we don't need to see inside Elizabeth's house; that Hyacinth's behaviour doesn't need to be commented on - the reactions of others are enough; that Elizabeth and Richard's occasional connection is its own Greek chorus; and that Hyacinth's musical ambition isn't as important as her social ambition (this point I'd disagree with most strongly. One is part and parcel of the other). So the series could have worked without him. In many ways it may have worked even better without the character. But the fact is that Griffin's chemistry with the cast is good and since it was decided that we have an Emmet, we have the right man for the job.Mary Millar has also made her debut. Her Rose has a very different energy to Shirley Stelfox's portrayal. Stelfox just looked completely right in the role. It's to her credit that in spite of her Brookside stint as conwoman Madge being at the front of my mind when I first watched KUA, I completely believed her Rose as someone who'd spent her entire adult life smoking and shagging. There was no doubt in my mind that she was streetwise and her lined face could tell a few tales. There was also a hardness to Stelfox's Rose. She's not someone whose bad side I would want to be on. Millar's interpretation is more flighty, ditzy and a little more cartoony. But she's very likeable and works well with her onscreen family. In spite of the different approach, I didn't find her first appearance to be jarring. When she walked into Onslow and Daisy's bedroom there was no doubt that she was Rose.Until I read this on Wikipedia I had no idea it was quite so popular:I'd love to know what the appeal of the show is to an American audience for it to make such a big splash. Not too drastically different to the reasons for it being popular here, I suppose. But I wonder if the appeal has added elements.Gosh, that rather surprised me too, until I read the bracketed part and realised why.Yes. I think it's changing and (many) Brits are becoming more assertive, but there are still many Hyacinths who get away with murder because people are polite to them.Incidentally, are you familiar with Routledge's earlier character of Kitty who has some Bucketisms of her own:[MEDIA=youtube]hszp-T4NidU[/MEDIA]Victoria Wood - the very talented comedienne who created and wrote Kitty - has a very specific style of humour. It's very British, mentioning lots of brand names, TV shows and colloquial words. More specifically, the style is very Northern English - very direct and no-nonsense. It's occurred to me that Roy Clarke and most of the KUA cast also have that in common.</blockquote>

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