Hetty Wainthropp Investigates

Production

Hetty Wainthropp Investigates is based on characters from David Cook's 1986 novel Missing Persons, which was inspired by his own mother's experiences. Cook co-wrote the episodes with John Bowen. Before the pilot was produced, Patricia Routledge read the novel for BBC Radio 4's A Book At Bedtime in February 1987. ITV broadcast a feature-length pilot titled Missing Persons in 1990, with Tony Melody as Robert Wainthropp and Garry Halliday as Geoffrey Shawcross, but ITV did not pursue a series.

The BBC series ignores the pilot's storyline, establishing Hetty as a detective in her first case and meeting Geoffrey for the first time. The characterisation of Hetty was altered considerably from the pilot, where she was blonde and more theatrical and lived in better circumstances. The BBC series was filmed primarily in Burnley, Darwen, Blackburn, Rossendale, Bolton, Southport and other Lancashire locations. Nigel Hess composed the music, with a cornet solo by Phillip McCann; the title track won the Ivor Novello Award for best television theme in 1997.

The series was popular with viewers, but no further episodes were commissioned after 1998. Patricia Routledge stated in a 2008 interview that the cast and crew were told a fifth series would be commissioned, but it never was. In 2017 Suzanne Maddock expressed disappointment that fans did not receive a proper conclusion.