Patricia Routledge: 'There's a fashion to speak badly'

^What Patricia Routledge tried to go on stage? A pianist in war and the King James Bible. She tells Laura Barnett what he thinks of the theater today

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History

"says Patricia Routledge He leans forward, his blue eyes with shiny buttons, well-modulated voice drops to an accomplice murmur. "History! And the character. Architecture! I always say," he added, "here, just dig a small hole to put a bulb in it, and if you're not careful, you will find a Roman mosaic. exciting! "

Few could raise much enthusiasm for the city of Chichester in a rainy morning, but that's where 82-year-Routledge has lived for the past 13 years. We sit breakfast and talk about her acting career of 60 years, he said, came as a surprise. "I've never been beaten stage," he said firmly. "I'm not reached the stage today. Nobody is more surprised than me that I have indeed spent my life doing that."

document that is nearest is, of course, Jacinto "Bouquet is!" Bucket, the pretentious suburban housewife in the 1990 BBC series Keeping Up Appearances. Routledge is impossible to imagine without thinking of "the terrible Mrs. B," as she calls it. In person, there are similarities: the night before we met, she calls a set of instructions on where to sit in the train. But it is infinitely more beautiful with a great sense of humor.

your current project - the reading of passages from the King James Bible on stage at the National Theatre, to mark the 400th anniversary of the issue - for example, has this to say: "David and Saul and Jonathan, and Queen Sheba and Bathsheba people terrible -. EastEnders is worse than I mean, terrible - .. incest, what you want and if someone does not like, you get it off "

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for almost 20 years since the last in the National Routledge, execution in 1992 Nicholas Hytner production of Carousel. (What fans of Ms. B may not know is that Routledge had a career in musical theater acclaim, winning an Olivier Award in 1988 for her performance in Bernstein's Candide). How do you feel to be back? "Wonderful," she said. "There was much discussion," We need to make a game with you and for you. "But I went and did other things. Television, of course. The terrible monster!"

These days, Routledge understandably choosy about the projects it undertakes. "For a long, long time," she said, "I did what I wanted to burn energy if you can not wake up every morning and hope that you will do at night - . And twice Wednesday and Saturday, - so as not worth doing "

one piece that was fit to do is input, a shilling, a tribute to the pianist Myra Hess, one of whose concerts in wartime Routledge saw a schoolgirl in Merseyside (born in Birkenhead). In the touring show, Routledge read excerpts from interviews with Hess, while pianist Piers Lane, recreates some of his most famous interpretations. "His general style has been wonderful," Routledge said: "His commitment to music. Do not pull on the keyboard, which is very popular these days. Why do people have to explain what they cost? Is the same for acting. There are some brilliant actors [today], but you are aware of the technique. "

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