Hetty Wainthropp definitely falls into CaptainD’s Category 2 detective – meddling old woman. However she is the sort of meddling old woman that is quite difficult not to end up liking anyway, so she’s a bit more bearable to watch than some others. This also is a very different style of detective movie, which has much to commend it – though some things that would dissuade me from watching further episodes, too.

In Missing Persons, Hetty (Patricia Routledge) decides to do a bit of detective work for the husband (Frank Cross, played by Jimmy Jewel) of her oldest friend (Edith, played by Jean Heywood). It seems that he walked out on his first wife and young son many years ago, and is having a dilemma as to whether he should try to make contact. Hetty being Hetty makes the decision for him, and before long there is one long lost son whose father is reluctant to actually meet him now – and the long lost son has a long lost son of his own that needs finding! Hetty’s long-suffering husband Robert (Tony Melody) is forever wondering if he will forever be eating frozen meals as she’s never there, and she becomes a local celebrity when she decides to put an advert in the paper as a private investigator – which leads to some unwelcome attention…

The problem, of course, isn’t so much in finding the missing people in the first place – it’s working out what to co with them after they’ve been found…

The plot takes us through several peoples’ past and present lives via flashback, but mainly focuses on Frank and Edith Cross. There are tenuous links between many of the characters that are not immediately apparent. As far as the plot goes, it’s pretty decent but not greatly above the average detective drama. Routledge gives a performance that seems not a million miles away from her character in Keeping Up Appearances, but the more emotional scenes do show that she is indeed a fine actress. In fact it is the emotional scenes that really make this stand out – despite some admittedly shoddy pacing in a few instances, this has one of the most compelling character studies of elderly people, and in particular an elderly couple, that I’ve ever seen. The coming together again of the missing relatives is handled quite well, but it is the relationship between Frank and Edith Cross that is studied in most depth – and it really is powerful stuff. On the downside it is also terribly depressing at one point. Hetty is the type of character who tries to buoy up all around her, whether they like it or not, and she certainly has plenty of opportunity to perform this seemingly thankless task towards the end of the episode. (Actually, though I call it an episode because there was a series that followed an I take this to be a feature-length pilot – 104 minutes – it seems that this might have been a stand-alone movie and a series made afterwards.)

There are one or two bizarre scenes but most of it is pretty straight-forward, with little objectionable material (the UK rating is 12). Most of what could be classed as objectionable is more implied than actually shown. (Fans of The Bill will enjoy seeing PC Dave Quinn [Anthony Paul] playing a seedy photographer…)

The fine cast, interesting storyline, and plenty of humorous moments make this entertaining, and the character study makes it poignant. On the other hand the main character does get infuriating, it’s a bit too slow, and you’ll probably be feeling pretty depressed by the end of it. I’m going to give it 4 stars and a recommended because it does what it sets out to very well, but don’t watch it if you’re already feeling a bit down – particularly if you have elderly relatives.

Link

This is the third (and probably final) review based on freebie detective DVDs that I borrow (can’t get much less expensive than borrowing stuff that was free to begin with, I always say…). The others are the well-produced but not me sort of thing Sherlock Holmes’ Casebook: The Adventure of the Last Vampyre and the absolutely superb Foyle’s War: The German Woman
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Recommended: Yes