Hetty Wainthropp Investigates Season 1 episode 1

Season 1 episode 1: The Bearded Lady

Review:

This first episode was interesting with Hetty Wainthropp's 60th birthday making her realize that it doesn't mean that she's old. Also that she was going to look for a job since she won't receive a pension (retirement payments) due to her not having worked for enough years prior to getting married. However, her husband Robert will once he turns 65, I'm sure during the time when she got married, women usually quit their jobs to become stay at home wives.

It didn't take long before Hetty found a job working part-time at the Bolton Road Post Office. One day while working, she noticed two things. The first was a young couple who came in to cash a pension check. The couple claimed they were helping out their elderly neighbor by cashing her checks for her but Hetty was suspicious. And with good reason which I will return to in a moment. Now as for the second thing she noticed, it was a young man shoplifting from the store. After some quick thinking she was able to get the items back he stole but the young man got away. However they would soon meet up again when she ran into him at the grocery store, Geoffrey Shawcross was the cashier. Hoping to get Hetty to change her mind before she turned him in to the police, Geoffrey followed her home.

He wasn't trying to cause Hetty any harm although her husband Robert was alarmed and suspicious after spotting the young man standing across the street. Geoffrey had waited outside their house for hours before Hetty eventually talked with him. He told Hetty and Robert a little bit about his life as a 17 year old living on his own. He wasn't trying to tell a sob story to get sympathy but it did strike a chord with Hetty. This was the beginning of a wonderful new friendship and the soon to be investigating duo. Before Geoffrey went home, Hetty had an interesting idea for him to find out where the couple lived. She wanted him to follow them the next time they came to cash another pension check and then report back to her.

He found out where the couple lived which led to Hetty and Geoffrey finding the body of the elderly woman. The couple claimed they didn't kill her and that they had found her dead but figured the old woman's pension would be of no use to her anymore. The police deemed the death an accident but Hetty believed it was murder.

The attention she received for stopping the pension fraud gave her the idea to become a private investigator and to hire Geoffrey as her assistant. Her husband wasn't too thrilled with the idea at first since she was using some of their savings to start her business and to pay Geoffrey a little bit of money. I would consider the Wainthropps to be working class and although they were not stressing about money they had made great efforts to save it.

Now that she was an investigator, she returned to the case of the elderly lady who was homeless and living in an abandoned building. The couple who was cashing the woman's checks also lived there along with a few others. The more Hetty looked into things the more puzzling this case had become. Unbeknownst to her, there was someone working in the background trying to make sure Hetty and Geoffrey didn't get too close to the truth but this duo were uncovering quite a few clues along the way.

I like this first episode, I found Hetty to be feisty, smart, assertive, very observant and having good instincts. I like that when she sets her mind to do something she follows through. There was only one time in the episode where she had become scared after someone set a trap which could have really injured her. Hetty was so shaken she thought about giving up but she didn't thanks to Geoffrey's encouragement. And speaking of Geoffrey, despite his shoplifting attempt, she had seen the potential in him. He's resourceful, willing to learn and very sympathetic. She knew he had what it takes in investigating and hired him as her assistant. Her husband Robert is not to be overlooked because although he seemed a bit surprised by her becoming a Private Investigator and using a bit of their savings to get started, he's very caring and supportive. He was initially a little wary of Geoffrey but I can see that he was changing his mind about him.

This episode had a nice build up with Hetty and Geoffrey's investigation leading them to an unexpected conclusion. I enjoyed this first episode and I can't wait to watch the next one.