Keeping Up Appearances:Hints from Hyacinth
Hyacinth's prying eyes are rewarded in "A Strange Man" when she spies a male in a towel sneaking out Elizabeth's door for the paper. She wallows in the possibilities of sinking property values and "moral turpitude" before finding out he's merely her neighbor's brother come to live with her. In an attempt to increase her social standing, Hyacinth convinces her beleaguered husband to ferry an ill-tempered wealthy widow about in "Driving Mrs. Fortescue." Mrs. Bucket's conniving predictably goes awry when the dowager enjoys a quaff with Hyacinth's lowbrow relatives while Hyacinth ends up in the back of a flat-bed truck. In "The Googley-Eyed Registrar," Hyacinth tries to intercept her runaway father's elopement at the registar's office, only to be mistaken for the bride. One of Hyacinth's famous-in-her-own mind Candlelight Suppers and a golfing outing with the ardent Major round out this set.--Kimberly Heinrichs