Customer Reviews

Hetty Wainthropp - Missing Persons

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4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this movie because I had really grown to love the Hetty series, and was sure I could still love it without Dominic Monaghan. What I didn't realise is that Derek Benfield wasn't in it as her husband, either. The chemistry between all the characters is fairly lacking, and I found the story itself highly improbable.

The story is basically this: Hetty goes off to find a friend's son, son is found, but HIS son ran away! Hetty goes off to find this son, and is befriended by an elderly man (who is a little too fiesty, and makes me uncomfortable...Hetty's MARRIED!) who helps her in the search. At long last he is found, and do you know who this found son is? That's right! Hetty's sidekick Geoffrey! Of course, Dominic Monaghan is Geoffrey in the "new" series, and I am glad of it! This Geoffrey seems all wrong, and is nowhere near cheeky.

It's fun to see the changes they made, and that they decided to find someone with CHEMISTRY! If you love Hetty, you might want this DVD. I say rent it before you buy. It's good for a standalone DVD, but if you imagine it to be like the series, you will be disappointed.

Hetty Wainthropp is a popular sleuth from British television who has shown up on PBS now and then. She's played by Patricia Routledge as a practical, no-nonsense woman with a sense of humor who got in the sleuthing game when her husband retired and she decided she could solve a mystery as well as the next person and make a little extra money doing it. The series started in 1996. This is the pilot. It was made in 1990 and wasn't picked up. It took six years before people figured out how to make the show work. This pilot, unfortunately, sort of demonstrates why the powers passed the first time.

Hetty is reluctantly asked to find the lost son of her best friend's husband. He'd been married once before. She does so by being smart and persistent, but then she's asked by the son to find his son, a 16-year old who has gone missing. Eventually she does, but only after some adventures.

Unfortunately, the mystery is much less a mystery than a family drama. Much time is spent on the characters' past. A good deal of time at the end is spent with Hetty trying to bring back some spirit to her best friend after the husband dies of a stroke. By the end of the program the grandson is going to work with Hetty on more cases and Hetty's husband is starting to complain about all the frozen meals she leaves him while she's out sleuthing.

Patricia Routledge is great in breathing character and interest into Hetty. It's the story itself that just doesn't have a lot of energy. Still, it was fun to see how Hetty got her start and to compare the changes that were made between this pilot and, six years later, the series.

This movie was made years before the series (perhaps while Patricia Routledge was doing Keeping Up Appearances). It tells a slightly different, and more fleshed-out version of how Hetty got into detective work. It is a different supporting cast, and I missed Dominic Monaghan as Geoffrey. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. If you are a Hetty fan I suggest you rent it.

I love the Hetty Wainthropp series, but this DVD was disappointing. There wasn't much mystery, and it was missing Geoffrey, and a different actor played Robert; I agree with another reviewer, there was no chemistry between the characters such as what you find in the series. I was very excited when I received it, I wanted to introduce a couple of my friends to Hetty, but they were unimpressed. I wished afterwards that I had shown them the first DVD of Series 1 instead.

The production is rough around the edges. Patricia Rutledge is great but one can see why the othersupporting actors were altered for the 'real' series.

Enjoyable for those who are fans but in honesty not the best......compared to the series over four years.

I adored Ms Routledge in her role as Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances. She was so good, I assumed she had always been a comedic actress. Therefore, imagine my surprise when I came across a pilot of a mystery series with Ms Routledge in the lead role. Clearly, I had to investigate further. The pilot, "Missing Persons" was filmed in 1990 (just before "Keeping Up Appearances", which ran 1990 thru 1995). To put it bluntly, it was not very good, and unsurprisingly, was not immediately picked up for development. Thankfully, some clever soul eventually recognized the material's potential and after "Keeping Up Appearances" ended, the new series went full steam. "Hetty Wainthropp Investigates" is based on a novel "Missing Persons" by David Cook. The author used a real life character, his own mother, as an inspiration for Hetty. "Missing Persons" tells the story of how Hetty, a working class housewife, discovers late in life an affinity for intuitive thinking and an appreciation for earning her own wage. In the course of her professional pursuits, Hetty comes accross Robert, a wayward youth she and her husband eventually accept into their humble home (due to the time lapse, in the series the teen actor playing Robert was replaced by the pre-Lord-of-the-Rings Dominic Monaghan).

The pilot "Missing Persons" did not age well. The action stalled quite frequently and vast parts were written poorly. Then there was the odd singing number and all-too-often talk about aching feet. I strongly advise that you view the pilot for historical purposes only. Then, promptly forget it and move on to the MUCH improved and highly entertaining series. Enjoy!

I'm a big fan of Patricia Routledge and the show "Hetty Wainthropp" and this is a good dvd to get if you are too.