The Act did not, however, see the need to give natural parents access to information about the child they gave up, perhaps because there is often little desire for these details, a fact I was soon to discover in a very personal way. Nigel Hess talks to Frank Renton about recording his music with the Central Band of the RAF and about how his music for TV sleuth Hetty Wainthropp introduced a whole new audience to the unique cornet playing of Phillip McCann. Press ESC to cancel. A veteran character actor whose face, moustache and constantly receding hairline were familiar on television in dozens of programmes over more than 40 years, Derek Benfield enjoyed his greatest recognition in three popular series each made a decade apart. There was no last message for me and the chance to discover my father, the man behind the make-up, is an opportunity for ever gone. Starting with The Young in Heart (1953), Benfield wrote more than 30 stage plays. He is survived by Susan, his daughter Kate, a casting director, son Jamie and two grandchildren. They were popular in regional venues and with amateur dramatic companies, and were often performed abroad. Hetty Wainthropp Investigates is a British crime drama television series, starring Patricia Routledge as the title character, Henrietta "Hetty" Wainthropp, that aired for four series between 3 January 1996 and 4 September 1998 on BBC One.The series, spawned from a pilot episode entitled "Missing Persons" aired by ITV in 1990, was co-created by writers David Cook and John Bowen, co-starred . We parted company an hour or so later, with my suggesting that if we were to meet again it should be he who made the contact. Northern crime drama starring comedy queen Patricia Routledge as an amateur sleuth. Hetty wakes on her 60th birthday and decides to become a private investigator. And despite a life-time career in the British entertainment industry, she never achieved the success she desired as an actress. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. TV-14 | Jan 10, 1996 | 49m. The old team remains intact: Hetty, her husband Robert (Derek Benfield), her reformed-teen-criminal sidekick Geoffrey (Dominic Monaghan) and Geoffreys girlfriend Janet (Suzanne Maddock). Like the protagonists in the popular farces he wrote for the stage, Derek had kept a deep secret from the audience. He is known to audiences primarily through Hyacinths phone conversations with him though his voice is never heard. The character of Sheridan is never seen or heard during the series. After an absence of far too long, Patricia Routledge has finally returned as amateur detective Hetty Wainthropp. After an absence of far too long, Patricia Routledge has finally returned as amateur detective Hetty Wainthropp. In 1974, at the age of 22, I sought solace in California, leaving an England where I felt I didnt belong. Derek Benfield with Patricia Routledge in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates . A self-taught expert in antique clocks is being stalked because of a clock in his possession and calls on Hetty for help. The BBC series was filmed primarily in Burnley, Darwen, Blackburn, Rossendale, Bolton and other locations in Lancashire. He played Higgenbottom, an inept television repairmen, in the sitcom Three Live Wires (1961) and the Chancellor of the Exchequer in an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's play The Apple Cart (1962), and had one-off character roles in series such as Detective (1964) and The Expert (1968). A touch of Hollywood has come to Preston as filming takes place in the city centre for a new movie. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Derek Benfield: Character actor whose career encompassed 'The, Get an extra 10% off fashion on the app - boohoo discount code, Extra 10% Nike discount code for students, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK February 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this February, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. . The old team remains intact: Hetty, her husband Robert (Derek Benfield), her reformed-teen-criminal sidekick Geoffrey (Dominic Monaghan) and Geoffreys girlfriend Janet (Suzanne Maddock). He is the only child of Hyacinth and Richard Bucket. 1. Stream full episodes of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates season 3 online on The Roku Channel. By what name was Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (1996) officially released in India in English? Following his first stage play, The Young in Heart (1953), he scripted more than 30 comedies and farces, including Beyond a Joke (1979, featuring Arthur Lowe), Bedside Manners (1986) and Touch and Go (1982), which later ran for a year in Paris. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Dame Katherine Patricia Routledge, DBE (/ratld/; born 17 February 1929) is an English actress, comedian, and singer with one of the longest careers of an entertainer, spanning more than 70 years. Carol Parks Producer. View all . Within two weeks, he had found my mother, spoken to my uncle, her brother, and had contrived the acceptance of a letter from me to her. Evidently, he or someone close to him rather thought he shouldnt. Im currently binge watching Hetty Wainthropp Investigates on Britbox and just want to add that I love the show for many of the reasons noted above, fine acting and writing, but also because many episodes also deal with controversial social issues. . Benfield was born in Bradford, where his father was a journalist. He also enclosed photos of my mother that not only betrayed her once-stunning actress looks, but also showed a significant family resemblance to my young son. He went on to advise: I consider it most undesirable that the identities of the natural and adopting parents should be known to one another.. What happens if you fight the former in foundation? The venue was the Park Lane Hotel in Mayfair, Central London, where I used to go for casting interviews, he said, adding a little history to the occasion. FILMING on a new Netflix biopic about a Lancashire businessman is starting today. It was a typical actors black-andwhite still of the time Orlando in As You Like It, in mid-soliloquy. Im an old man now., His wifes reply to the letter Id sent him was painfully direct. We meet Hetty (right as she turns sixty), her retired husband Robert (Derek Benfield), and Geoffrey. Is Hyacinth from Keeping Up Appearances still alive? A decade later, the actor was able to bring his authentic Yorkshire tones to First of the Summer Wine (1988-9), a prequel to the popular comedy about three pensioners ambling around the countryside, causing chaos. Frank is seen asking in one frame. Audience Reviews for Hetty Wainthropp Investigates: Season 3 There are no featured audience reviews yet. 23:22 GMT 08 May 2010, The voice on the phone was clear and well enunciated, betraying little of the actors northern roots. It was all interesting stuff, but none of it seemed to be getting me much closer to discovering any fundamentals about my natural parents. Alongside his acting career, Benfield had success as a writer. On demobilisation, Benfield trained at Rada, where he won the Gertrude Lawrence Award for his performance in French Without Tears. Watch Hetty Wainthropp Investigates: Safe As Houses, Watch Hetty Wainthropp Investigates: For Love Nor Money, Watch Hetty Wainthropp Investigates: A Rose By Any Other Name, Watch Hetty Wainthropp Investigates: Poison Pen, Watch Hetty Wainthropp Investigates: The Complete Collection, Watch Hetty Wainthropp Investigates: Blood Relations, Watch Hetty Wainthropp Investigates: All Stitched Up, Watch Hetty Wainthropp Investigates: Family Values, Watch Hetty Wainthropp Investigates: Daughter Of The Regiment, Watch Hetty Wainthropp Investigates: Widdershins, Watch Hetty Wainthropp Investigates: The Complete Collection: Vol 6, Watch Hetty Wainthropp Investigates: Fisticuffs, I first saw this program when it appeared on the PBS "Mystery" series. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. I now understand that my preference for the arts over the sciences was not just bohemian whimsy, but probably also genetic. Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (BBC) popular BBC drama starring Patricia Routledge which filmed at various locations in Darwen and Rawtenstall during 1996-1998. Watch Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, Season 1 | Prime Video. The reality, however, was a little different. David pounded pavements, knocked on doors and spent hours on the computer reviewing names and addresses and databases. Meanwhile, Robert (Derek Beneld) is in Australia, leaving Hetty and Geoffrey (Dominic Monaghan) to deal with his eccentric brother Frank (FrankRead More And it is enough. With assistance from a teenager called Geoffrey and her husband Robert, combined with her own common sense, Hetty is confident she can solve any case. Carol Parks. You can imagine the great distress it caused me, she wrote. It is more than I ever knew before. By 1953 he was in Preston, where he married his wife Susan, another member of the company, and two years later came his first appearance on television, in Return to the Lost Planet. TimesMojo is a social question-and-answer website where you can get all the answers to your questions. However, in the early 1960s, the new medium seemed to have suddenly realised that the north existed, and Benfield benefited from this, with Granada's anthologies The Villains (1964) and The Gamblers (1967), a brief Coronation Street stint in 1967, and, for BBC2, The Siege of Manchester (1965). Darren Tighe. To rake up events that occurred in a different time and under different sensibilities will have its critics. Nigel Hess After that, you are pretty much on your own. It was one of the many Sunday night successes of the producer Gerard Glaister, for whom Benfield featured in The Long Chase (BBC, 1972), a children's thriller. Benfield made his first television appearance as Professor Bergman in the BBC children's serial Return to the Lost Planet (1955), but it was a few years before he returned to screen. 2. How Time Flies: Directed by David Giles. Cast: Patricia Routledge Dominic Monaghan Derek Benfield John Graham-Davies Suzanne Maddock Frank Mills Wanda Ventham Wayne Foskett. In The Brothers (1972-6), which followed the back-stabbing exploits of three sons who inherited their father's business, he played haulage company foreman Bill Riley. My reappearance, however, was not as easy for my mother. Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, which aired on BBC1 between 1996 and 1998, followed the crime-fighting antics of a sprightly and intelligent pensioner. But did anyone ever ask an adopted child if being chosen was enough? Backgrounds. Directors: . Montague 'Monty' Francis: My dear lady, I shall put out the word to all owners of small bobbing craft recommending the Wainthropp lifeboat. See production, box office & company info, Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators. 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 . It seems that once pregnant, she was promptly dispatched to distant relatives in Germany to come to term, returning clandestinely to Britain for the birth. Staithes doubled as the coastal village of Kirkewell in Blood Relations (1998). At first I was a bit dubious as I was still in 'Hyacinth Bucket' mode and if you listen carefully on the very first story, you can still hear traces of her. Benfield was married to actress Susan Lyle Grant from 1953. I wanted first to get some background on who my parents were and why they chose to give me up. He was at home surrounded by his family. A veteran character actor whose face, moustache and constantly receding hairline were familiar on television in dozens of programmes over more than 40 years, Derek Benfield enjoyed his greatest recognition in three popular series each made a decade apart. Robert Wainthropp/. Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (BBC) popular BBC drama starring Patricia Routledge which filmed at various locations in Darwen and Rawtenstall during 1996-1998. Instead of spending her golden years lying down, the indomitable Hetty Wainthropp (Patricia Routledge) found her calling late in life. Patricia Routlege, Roger Benfield and Dominic Monaghan star in this wonderful 1990's TV series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates based on the books by David Cook. Meanwhile, Robert (Derek Beneld) is in Australia, leaving Hetty and Geoffrey (Dominic Monaghan) to deal with his eccentric brother Frank (Frank Mills). , I sought solace in California, leaving an England where I felt I didnt belong in English we assume. 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