This TV movie starring Patricia Routledge was meant to be the pilot for a TV series. She stars as Hetty Wainthropp, a grandmother living in Halifax, UK, who accidentally turns private detective when her childhood best friend's husband wants to find the son he abandoned 50 years before.
She launches an investigation but then learns that her friend, who is not the mother of the child, is very disturbed by this turn of events, so Hetty tries to scotch the father and son reuning. But when the son turns up on her doorstep, he hires her to his HIS 16-year-old son who has run off to London. This is how she meets Geoffrey, her eventual sidekick.
There's one other investigation that involves Hetty and Geoffrey in tracking down a runaway girl with a fondness for snakes. Besides Geoffrey, Hetty also befriends a pushy and street-wise man named Chalky and an eccentric shut-in named Phillida Meadowhite.
The movie swings from drama to comedy and even recounts Hetty's youth as an entertainer or sorts. Like the series, which didn't start until 1996, after Yorkshire Television (YTV) passed on the series, this Hetty is also pretty much free of violence.
After YTK passed on Hetty, Routledge starred in a comedy series for BBC called KEEPING UP APPEARANCES as Hyacinth Bucket. The show ran for 5 years and made Routledge a household name in the UK. When that show ended, she immediately started HETTY WAINTHROPP INVESTIGATES for the BBC and had another hit TV show (which ran for 4 seasons).
MISSING PERSONS presents a slightly daffier Hetty, but Routledge is terrific. The film also boasts a great performance by Jean Heywood as Edith, Jimmy Jewel as her husband Frank, and Jean Kent as the eccentric Phillida. There's also Gary Halliday as Geoffrey, Tony Melody as husband Robert, Gary Waldhorn as the long-lost son, and Ram John Holder as Chalky.
The movie is set in the small city of Halifax.
She launches an investigation but then learns that her friend, who is not the mother of the child, is very disturbed by this turn of events, so Hetty tries to scotch the father and son reuning. But when the son turns up on her doorstep, he hires her to his HIS 16-year-old son who has run off to London. This is how she meets Geoffrey, her eventual sidekick.
There's one other investigation that involves Hetty and Geoffrey in tracking down a runaway girl with a fondness for snakes. Besides Geoffrey, Hetty also befriends a pushy and street-wise man named Chalky and an eccentric shut-in named Phillida Meadowhite.
The movie swings from drama to comedy and even recounts Hetty's youth as an entertainer or sorts. Like the series, which didn't start until 1996, after Yorkshire Television (YTV) passed on the series, this Hetty is also pretty much free of violence.
After YTK passed on Hetty, Routledge starred in a comedy series for BBC called KEEPING UP APPEARANCES as Hyacinth Bucket. The show ran for 5 years and made Routledge a household name in the UK. When that show ended, she immediately started HETTY WAINTHROPP INVESTIGATES for the BBC and had another hit TV show (which ran for 4 seasons).
MISSING PERSONS presents a slightly daffier Hetty, but Routledge is terrific. The film also boasts a great performance by Jean Heywood as Edith, Jimmy Jewel as her husband Frank, and Jean Kent as the eccentric Phillida. There's also Gary Halliday as Geoffrey, Tony Melody as husband Robert, Gary Waldhorn as the long-lost son, and Ram John Holder as Chalky.
The movie is set in the small city of Halifax.