• Air date: 29 Nov '96 6 episodes
      Hetty Wainthropp Investigates is a genteel British crime/comedy drama television programme that aired from 1996 to 1998 on BBC One. Patricia Routledge starred as the titular character, Derek Benfield as her patient husband Robert, Dominic Monaghan as their lodger Geoffrey Shawcross and John Graham Davies as DCI Adams. Later episodes include Suzanne Maddock as Janet Frazer, a feisty young auto mechanic who sells a car to Geoffrey; their relationship develops by the end of the series. In the United States, episodes have been featured on PBS's anthology programme Mystery!
  • List of Episodes (6)
    • 1. Poison Pen

      29 Nov '96
      Helga Allowby, a self-described spinster, has been accused of sending noxious poison pen letters to the residents of her village–and she wants Hetty to prove her innocence. Hoping to penetrate the mistrust that pervades the village, Hetty goes undercover as Tara Hall, a visiting painter. When Hetty turns up next on the mailing list, she suspects that Miss Allowby is guilty of bad penmanship.
    • 2. Lost Chords

      06 Dec '96
      Hetty is called in to investigate when one by one, the contestants in the Blainthorp Muiscal Festival lose their voices. The sponsor of the festival, Oliver Hardiman wants the mystery solved but Hetty only has five days.She finds herself caught up in a battle between rival pharmacists who may be using their skills to harm the finalists.
    • 3. Runaways

      13 Dec '96
      Hetty is called in by the Mayor of Titterslow to look for his daughter who has runaway. She has learning difficulties and the Mayor and his wife want the matter of her disappearance to be kept very quiet. Hetty discovers that she left with her boyfriend, Bernard, who also has learning difficulties and that they were making their way to a country hotel.
    • 4. The Astral Plane

      20 Dec '96
      Hetty gets mystical as she investigates Maurika Rome, a spiritualist suspected of using séances and blackmail to prey on the savings of the recently widowed. When Hetty goes undercover and invents a late husband she wishes to contact, she begins to wonder if Mrs. Rome isn't the real thing–until a woman claiming to be her ""late husband's"" illegitimate daughter shows up demanding money. Geoffrey's secret romance with Rome's daughter, Sara, threatens to undermine Hetty's carefully laid trapâ€
    • 5. A Rose by Any Other Name

      03 Jan '97
      The children of well-to-do widow Gillian Snape are worried that her photographer-fiancé Lester Rose is marrying her for her money, and hire Hetty to investigate Rose's past. With Geoffrey's help, Hetty learns that Rose is a gambler and a gigolo with several previous identities. Surprising facts revealed by two women from his past and Hetty's tense undercover visit to his studio expose a somewhat less thorny side of the man. Still, is he the marrying kind?
    • 6. Woman of the Year

      10 Jan '97
      Hetty goes undercover to a women's shelter in a confidential location–and where no man may enter. Detective Chief Inspector Adams suspects that the shelter's security has been severely compromised by an inside informer. Hetty's quest to find the leak opens her eyes to the terrifying realities of spousal abuse, and results in a gripping conclusion as she leads the women in defending their sanctuary against a violent motorcycle gang.