Patricia Routledge, best known to television viewers as the status-obsessed Hyacinth Bucket on the long-running British comedy series Keeping Up Appearances, takes on a very different role in this made-for-TV mystery. Hetty Wainthropp (Routledge) is a sensible and practical woman in her early sixties. When a close friend's son goes missing, Hetty decides the police aren't doing enough to track him down, and sets out to find him herself. When Hetty's plan proves to be a success, she gets a private detective's license and becomes a full-time sleuth, to the slight annoyance of her kitchen-phobic husband. Missing Persons became a pilot for a series of Hetty Wainthropp mysteries starring Routledge, which ran for four seasons; the character was adapted from the writings of novelist David Cook. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide