I live in Hetty Wainthropp's house - it's an honour to have shared my house with legend Patricia Routledge
The owner of a Lancashire home made famous in an iconic 90s BBC series has spoken of the strange experience of watching his home - sat inside it.
Andy Puzon has lived at 35 East Park Avenue in Darwen since 2018, and reached out to The Post after we reminisced on how it was the fictional home of Dame Patricia Routledge’s Hetty Wainthropp in the series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, following her death last week.
The 41-year-old said: “On the estate agent listing it actually stated ‘featured in a BBC drama’. I knew Hetty Wainthropp had been filmed locally as I’m Darwen born and bred and had kind of watched it in my teens, so kind of suspected that was what the listing alluded to - Darwen is hardly a hive of activity for BBC dramas!
“After moving in I did record all the episodes and watched them, was very odd watching my house in my house! I’ve modernised it a lot in terms of decor since moving in so there’s no more net curtains and doilies.”
He said it was an “an honour to have shared my house with such a grand piece of television history and the legend that Patricia Routledge was”, adding: “How could you not like Patricia Routledge? I have childhood memories of my grandma laughing at her on Keeping Up Appearances on Christmas Day, even though Mrs Bucket always used to terrify me with how austere she was.”
The three-bedroomed mid-terraced property was featured in many of the early episodes of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, which ran for four series between 1996 to 1998, and was based on newly-retired Hetty deciding to form a detective agency with her teenage sidekick Geoffrey.
Darwen Market was also shown in the series, as well as The Victoria pub in Sudell Road, and the Lodges Supermarket in Railway Road, where Geoffrey worked stacking shelves. Other Lancashire locations shown included the canalside buildings in Burnley, St Mary’s RC Church in Lord Street, Fleetwood, Warner and Church Street in Accrington, St Augustine’s Leisure Centre in Preston, and Eva Street in Rusholme, Manchester.