Keeping Up Appearances appliances

[fan-of-fans]

I was wondering does anyone know what appliances Hyacinth had on Keeping Up Appearances? I know the coffee maker was a Braun Aromaster, which she often used when she invited Elizabeth over for coffee. She had a few electric kettles... I recall a food processor and a long narrow toaster with possibly one slot. There were two different microwaves and to me they looked Panasonic. A smooth-top cooker (probably a few) and the refrigerator, which for the UK is normal size I guess but looked like a dorm or hotel fridge here. I don't recall Onslow having any small appliances other than the TV said Fidelity on it and his fridge looked like two of the small ones stacked on each other.

I only realized what the Braun Aromaster was after found one at a yard sale on my street once. They seemed popular in 90s kitchen magazines and I believe are still made, although we don't get Braun small appliances here any more.

 

[hoovermatic]

I think you have more or less covered them all. There was no sign of a washer or dryer and although I am sure she would have had a dishwasher for the purposes of washing her Royal Doulton with the hand painted periwinkles, it was never shown.

Incidentally, I think you will find that those little fridges are nowhere near as common now as you think. I can't remember the last time I went into any house and saw one unless it was used solely for beer and/or wine. Most people have much larger units, myself included.

 

[liamy1]

Can't help...

With the appliances, but just wanted to say Keeping up Appearances is one of my favourite shows of all time. I think it should have ran for a lot longer than it did.

I love all the sitcoms from that particular era (very late 80s to mid 90s), Keeping up Appearances, One foot in the grave, The vicar of dibley etc.

Love them, I was in primary school at that time, and just seeing the houses/the way they dressed at that time. Just takes me right back to a time when life was good.

 

[foraloysius]

Actually in the intro you see a dishwasher rack. I can't remember if we ever got to see more of it.

 

[hoovermatic]

That was used for the credits and the purposes of showing the milk bottles, which were probably cleaner than when they left the dairy, plus the gold cutlery. It was never shown in the shows. Much comedy gold was gained from Hyacinth at the sink!!

So many of these great, iconic comedy shows were written by one person; One Foot in the Grave being a wonderful example. So many of today's shows are written by teams of people and are nowhere near as funny, clever or fondly remembered.

 

[aquacycle]

The dishwasher in the credits is an Indesit.

Elizabeth has a Goblin Housemaid softbag vacuum. Onslow, Daisy and Rose have a Hoover Junior U1036 in the first series and later an Electrolux z65.

 

[ilovewindex]

This is the kitchen shot i remember

 

[lordkenmore]

>So many of these great, iconic comedy shows were written by one person

And that has struck me as being a real strength of comedies like KEEPING UP APPEARANCES.

As far as I know, the American model has always involved a team of writers. One supposes each week is a committee effort--sit around a table, lots of coffee (or booze), and try to come up with and develop an idea. And like the joke says about committees: the camel was a committee effort.

Even more fun...I don't know the ins-and-outs of TV writing. But I seem to recalling reading of requirements that a certain percentage of scripts had to come from outside writers. I don't know how far this applied, or when it applied. But it seems like a really bad idea since the outside writers might not have the same sense of characters, or a sense of long term plot directions.

 

[chachp]

Also a huge fan..

It's on public TV here every Saturday night. I probably know every word in every episode. Love her!!!!!!

As far as the dishwasher goes, when she is standing at her sink cleaning up the coffee that Elizabeth spilled you can sometimes see the corner of a white appliance to her immediate right. I wonder if that's the dishwasher?

 

[vacerator]

Yes, the appliance to her

right is the D/W, because the one behind her is an undercounter fridge. Her range is a slide in style, with a glass dust cover.

 

[fan-of-fans]

I also seem to remember her having a stereo system of some kind in one episode. And Richard had a JVC camcorder he got as a retirement gift.

 

[vacerator]

yes, and their car

was a rebadged Honda Civic as a Rover 200.

 

[hotpointfan]

Rover 200

Pretty 100% sure that the Civic and the 200 were different cars, I know there was joint work between Rover and Honda on the 400 but not the 200.

 

[foraloysius]

The Rover 200 was related to the Honda Concerto, that was sort of based on the Honda Civic IIRC.

 

[lordkenmore]

Wikipedia article talking about the Rover 200.

"The original Rover 200 (sometimes referred to by the codename SD3) was the replacement for the earlier Triumph Acclaim, and was the second product of the alliance between British Leyland (BL) and Honda."

Rover 200 / 25 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[delaneymeegan]

 

 

Have you all forgot about the most scene stealing appliance in Hyacinth's symphony of domestic servile accouterments?   

 

It was white, had automatic number re-dial, ..... but looks suspiciously like a U.S. Western Electric Slim-line.  (Where is Alex from the Vacuum Forum?)

 

 

 

 

[delaneymeegan]

Hoovermatic Paul

 

 

"I think you will find that those little fridges are nowhere near as common now as you think."

 

It used to be the day when I, a single person was known to have a 22 to 25 c.f. side by side frig, for one person.  .... and they were a BEAST to move.  

 

These days I've slimmed down.  I won'd have anything taller than 34".  Basically if I can't pick it up and put it in my car, I'm not interested.  It also has to fit under the counter.   I have a 33" tall frig, and a tiny 1.5 c.f. freezer.  My electric bill has shrunk as well.

 

Sad to hear that the U.K. has gone the other direction. Still I'd think a typical UK frig is similar to 2 of those Hyacinth frigs STACKED.  Which is still much better than an American frig.

 

The typical U.S. frig is oddly not fitted to our kitchens.  Our Dishwashers, stoves, and other appliances fit the typical 24" depth of the kitchen units.  

But the frigs are usually projecting 30". (?) Very strange and inappropriate.  Its obnoxious and pathetic.  Typical, American garbage.  And of course, in general the size is often way too big, and they suck up energy to run around the clock, and people are more likely to hoard and lose track of stuff they put in them, promoting waste.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[liamy1]

Size of fridges,

At the time Keeping Up was filmed, I would say these fridges shown were the norm.

However, now is a different story. We have gone bigger. We are also really into our "American" fridge/freezers - the side by sides. In the 90's these would have been practically unheard of over here. However, for the last 10-15 years or so, all the rage.

In terms of appliances, our dishwashers, stoves etc are the same size 24". Our washing machines are too, they have managed over the years, to make our washers hold bigger capacities whilst still fitting into the 24" unit size. As you will know, over here, 90 percent of the time washers are in the kitchen too.

 

[lordkenmore]

In my cynical moments, I wonder why Americans think they need big refrigerators. In this era, it's all about the frozen dinner which gets nuked. Thus a wiser system would be a refrigerator that's mostly freezer...