Pilot. Missing Persons  

"Lost ones found! Reliable and discreet mature female detective."

Hetty Wainthropp, a lady of a certain age, visits childhood friend Edith and discovers that her husband, Frank, has a son by a previous marriage. Hetty decides to turn amateur detective to trace him. This gives her a taste for detection, and she decides to set up a private detective agency.

1. The Bearded Lady  

Hetty Waintthropp is annoyed at the cards celebrating her sixtieth birthday – they all offer her well wishes for "joining the club" of senior citizens and old-age pensioners, even though she's not entitled to a pension. Determined to make something of herself, Hetty gets a job at the local post office, where she proves her mettle quite quickly by throwing out a troublemaking biker and chasing down a shoplifter.

2. Eye Witness  

Hetty is called on by a pair of worried parents whose deaf-mute son, Malcolm, has disappeared while out bird-watching on the day he was to meet his mail-order bride from Thailand. Malcolm is on the run because he has witnessed the strangulation of a beautiful model-turned-journalist by her lover, Sergeant Steve Lennox, a rogue policeman. After doing the deed, Lennox sends the woman's body over a cliff in a car – and takes off after Malcolm. Hetty and Geoff's search for Malcolm proves more difficult than expected – especially after Sergeant Lennox is assigned to work with Hetty on the case!

3. Fingers  

A restaurant owner in Italy is sent a package apparently containing his son's index finger plus a photo of him in front of graffiti art in Manchester and a warning: Silence and await instruction. The distraught family finds solace when who should be taking a holiday in Italy than Hetty Wainthropp? After snooping at her passport and learning she's a detective, they come to her and she accepts their case. As hetty investigates, she discovers that Gianni may be involved in a bad loan connected to the mafia.

4. Widdershins  

Hetty and Robert travel to the small village of Readsby, where his revered elderly uncle, a former professional soccer player, has apparently committed suicide. But Hetty doesn't believe it – for one thing, where's the suicide note? And when she begins to suspect that the villagers of Readsby, once a notorious haven for witches, are engaged in satanic practices, she's determined to prove that they were somehow involved – with surprising results!

5. A High Profile  

A desperate for work Hetty takes Geoffrey up and down the streets and sidewalks of town advertising the foundering detective agency. This proves to be a wise method of business, as they pick up a client: a woman whose estranged son, Michael, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, lives in another town. Her husband, Reg, Michael’s stepfather, refused to have her son living with them as Michael grew more delusional. The mother wants to know how her son is doing. As Hetty investigates, she discovers that Michael has disappeared from his sheltered housing unit and has had a hard time being accepted by society. As it becomes clear that Michael has gone off his medicine, Hetty finds herself in a race against the clock to try and find the man before he hurts himself or others in his delusional state.

6. Safe as Houses  

An old friend of Hetty's – her partner in a music-hall routine years ago – seeks her help in locating her troubled foster daughter, Chrissie. A teenage mother, Chrissie has disappeared just as a series of arson attacks on local homes have occurred – and Chrissie has a history of setting fires! As Hetty and Geoffrey look for Chrissie, a local newspaper photo competition reveals more than the photographer intended, prompting Geoff to dress in drag – blonde wig, high heels and all – to confront the arsonist. Hetty picks up a much-needed reward for her work in this case, and at the presentation of the check, proves that the new gumshoe hasn't lost her knack for the old soft-shoe!