The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

Hetty Wainthropp Investigates

If you are looking for a mystery series to watch that is short on the gore and long on fun with a lot of “cozy-ness” thrown in, then look no more……. you have found it……. Hetty Wainthropp Investigates is for you!

I first started watching the Hetty Wainthropp series on PBS years ago, and, having been a fan of Keeping Up Appearance, I was already a fan of Patricia Routledge. If you first saw Routledge as Hyacinth Bucket (Keeping Up Appearances… and pronounced “Bouquet”!!!) and then as Hetty, you will know what a wonderful actress Dame Routledge is. Don’t expect any “pratfalls” when you see Hetty…

Expect the BBC’s wonderful attention to detail when you see the Hetty Wainthropp Investigates shows. Patricia Routledge (as I stated above) is absolutely wonderful. And, for all of you Tolkien Trilogy movie fans, Geoffrey, her young, but very capable sidekick is played by Dominic Monaghan. (You might also recognize him from the TV show Lost…)

The first season of the Hetty Wainthropp Investigates is from 1996. We meet Hetty (right as she turns sixty), her retired husband Robert (Derek Benfield), and Geoffrey. Hetty is determined that she will not be a “senior citizen”… She is too young for that label, and she is going to show the world that people in the later part of their lives are viable and productive. And that, she does!

She starts up a detective agency with Geoffrey as her assistant in the field, and Robert, who is only involved in the field when absolutely necessary, handles the phone back in the “office” (home). She slowly wins the admiration and respect of DCI Adams (played perfectly by John Graham Davies), and is even called in a few times when DCI Adams feels that a case needs Hetty’s gentle technique. Unfortunately, PBS only showed four of the six episodes in the first season of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates.

At the end of 1996 and beginning of 1997, the BBC filmed six new shows for the second season of the Hetty Wainthopp Investigates series. (Again, for some reason, PBS only showed four of the six episodes.) These shows were as good as the first season’s. The scenery is beautiful, the acting is faultless, and the shows are great fun to watch. Very cozy!

Apparently, the BBC knew that they had a great show on their hands, because the third season of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates has nine episodes in it, instead of the previous two seasons that only had six episodes each. During the middle of the season, Robert (Hetty’s husband) makes an abrupt trip to Australia to visit their son. I am not quite sure what happened to the actor who played Robert, but, they brought Robert’s brother Frank in to replace him for the rest of the season. Although I missed Robert, Frank was able to infuse a new type of “friction” to the series, as he insists on helping Hetty and Geoffrey, usually messing things up along the way.

In 1998 the BBC made the fourth season of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, which unfortunately is the end of the shows. Hetty’s husband is back, and you don’t want to miss him as the millionaire who is confined to a wheelchair!  Of course, seeing Geoffrey as his chauffeur is a real treat!

One thing that I feel I must add is that six years before the BBC bought the rights to Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, another network commissioned a pilot for the series. Missing Persons is the name of the pilot, and it is based on the David Cook novel with the same name. The station (ITV) didn’t pick up the series.  I was able to track down this movie, and was really surprised at how different everything is. I would definitely not recommend watching this episode first; it is not at all like the BBC Hetty Wainthropp Investigates series. And, if you do decide to watch this pilot, it might help if you convince yourself that it is another character with the same name as the wonderful Hetty Wainthropp, even though Patricia Routledge is also the actress playing this very different Hetty.

I can truly say that I love (and highly recommend) the Hetty Wainthropp Investigates series!

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Lord Peter Wimsey series…

The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries: Set 1 One series that we particularly enjoy is the Lord Peter Wimsey series. Actually, there are two different versions of the Lord Peter Wimsey series (by the great author Dorothy L. Sayers)…. one series was made in the 1970s and the other was made in the 1980s. (This article will be about the 1970s version. My next article will be about the 1980s miniseries.)

When I started watching the BBC 1970s version, I wasn’t quite sure if I would stay with the series, or not. It was “different” than any other series I had watched… the shows almost seemed a bit “campy.” But,  I finally decided to stay with the series, and boy (!) am I ever glad that I did!  If anything, now that my husband has seen the series, we are really sorry that there are only five different episodes. (Not to worry, each of the episodes is given three hours or more… so they aren’t crammed into the normal 52 minute format.)  I first saw the series on PBS, when it aired on Masterpiece Theatre. You may be asking why it was on Masterpiece Theatre and not Mystery!… but for those of you old enough to remember “way back then”, you will know that there was no such show as Mystery!…  And, rumor has it that this wonderful mystery series is what prompted Masterpiece Theatre to fork out into the Mystery! show.

Dorothy L. Sayers  is known to most mystery readers as one of the great mystery writers of all times. After Oxford, she taught school and also worked as a copywriter for an advertising firm. Her first Lord Peter Wimsey novel (Whose Body?) was published in the early 1920s.

Ian Carmichael stars as Lord Peter Wimsey in this BBC production. Clouds of Witness, Murder Must Advertise, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, The Nine Tailors, and Five Red Herrings are the titles of the different miniseries, which of course, are based on the novels of the same names.

The Lord Peter Wimsey collection  is one of the few miniseries series that features an aristocratic sleuth who is actually smarter than his butler! Bunter, while smart, is still no match for his employer. Inspector Parker, who befriends Lord Peter Wimsey and falls for Lord Wimsey’s sister, Lady Mary (“Polly”) is refreshingly smart, also. (Sometimes, when you have a main sleuthing character it is almost perfunctory to have a bungling police force…. which is not the case in these shows.)

(Here is a list of the novels by Dorothy L. Sayers.)

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Bless Me, Father series

This is a wonderful series for those who enjoy “gentle humor.” The series is about a priest who has been at his parish for many years and now has to train a very young curate in the ways of the church. I must add, it is not a mystery, but it does have “a coziness” about it.

It is set in the 1950s, and there is a lot of friendly competition between the older priest and the Protestant pastors. I say “friendly” because there is nothing in this show that is objectionable. Although, at first sight, Father Duddleswell (the older priest) seems to be an old, cantankerous codger, you soon see that beyond the public persona there is another side of the man… who truly cares for his parishioners and is flexible enough that he can bend strict rules when he sees that they need bending.

Mrs. Pring, his housekeeper of many years is a treat to watch, as she banters with Father Duddleswell. They act as if they don’t like each other, but you can see that they have a long history of mutual antagonizing and caring. There is not even a hint of a past romantic liaison between them, which is a very refreshing thing about the Bless Me Father series.

The secondary characters are also fun to meet…….. I think that Mother Superior is a hoot! She is able to keep Father Duddleswell in his place…… which is invariably is a few rungs under her!

Father Duddleswell has one particular friend who he can relate to…… the always-smoking, usually-drinking doctor… another really good character. And, the church’s closest neighbor (who just happens to be an agnostic) owns a bar and has never said no to placing a bet. He is yet another character who will delight you.

My husband and I watched Bless Me, Father series while our children were both away at college, and we have since then given them the series so that they too can enjoy the fun.

(I should say that although this has the feeling of the BBC shows that we have enjoyed for years on PBS, it is actually made by LWT – London Weekend Television.)

If you would like to see more TV and Movies suggestions, click here.

Rosemary & Thyme series

Rosemary & Thyme: Complete Collection I discovered this series while reading a blog of a woman who happened to have a lot of my same cozy mystery book preferences. I am so glad that I found her blog online, otherwise, I would have missed this ITV series, and in doing so, miss seeing some of the most beautiful gardens that I have ever seen, and also, I would have missed seeing this mystery show. They are in the third season in Britain, but I don’t know of any channel here in the states that is (or was) airing it.

The series is about two women (Rosemary Boxer and Laura Thyme) who find themselves at crossroads in their lives. Rosemary (played by Felicity Kendal) has just lost her job at the university teaching some type of horticultural classes while Laura (Pam Ferris) has just been left by her husband, for a much younger woman. It is obvious from the very beginning, in Season 1 of Rosemary and Thyme‘s first meeting that they share a love for all things green, and, because they both have “inquisitive minds,” whenever they stumble onto a crime, they are interested in solving it.

As I said above, the gardens are absolutely exquisite. Sometimes, I am distracted by the beautiful colors, and need to go back on the DVD to catch up on the story line… that is how gorgeous the photography is. And, as anyone who follows mysteries knows, you can’t miss out on the clues just because the scenery is so beautiful.

Rosemary & Thyme reminds me a lot of the early Murder, She Wrote shows……… before Jessica literally had to move from Cabot Cove because almost everyone had died by suspicious means. Season 2 and Season 3 follow the two gardeners while they plant gardens and unplant clues.

Brian Eastman (the creator of the Rosemary & Thyme television series) wrote three Rosemary & Thyme mystery books:

And No Birds Sing   ’04
The Tree of Death   ’05
Memory of Water   ’06

Also, I see that the Rosemary & Thyme Complete Collection is now available.

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*****I wrote this review way back in 2006, but we still think it’s a terrific series. If you are a member of Netflix, they have the DVDs. Also, your library might just carry the DVDs. It truly is an exceptional British television mystery series. May 2014

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