Clever detective to tough granny

Then John Erman, the director of this "Hallmark Hall of Fame" production, made his pitch.

"He called me at my house in Ireland, which is where the film is set," Lansbury recalls with a smile, "while I was standing at my stove. He said, 'Angie, if you have the guts, you should do this role.' And I said, 'Well, you know me, and I do have the guts.' "

Despite their proximity in age, Granny proves a gutsy leap for the 78-year-old Lansbury, almost unrecognizable in the gray, thatchlike wig and dowdy garb the role demanded.

Besides, "The Blackwater Lightship" (which CBS airs Wednesday at 9 p.m. EST) is fraught with larger gambles that, in lesser hands, could have sunk the project into schmaltzy melodrama.

It forces an encounter between three generations of estranged women, who, besides Granny, include Lily, her cold, long-widowed daughter (Dianne Wiest) and brooding granddaughter, Helen (Gina McKee).

"I love this triumvirate of women faced with an extraordinary problem in their lives," says Lansbury.

The cause of their fractious reunion: Declan, Helen's brother, who has re-entered their lives in the final stages of AIDS. He wants to spend a bit of his remaining time at Granny's, where two of his close friends, who consider themselves his true family, show up, further heightening the tension.

Stuck in this emotional traffic jam, the three women must at last confront old hurts and air their old grievances.

"This comes after years of thinking they were helping each other by not telling each other things," says Lansbury, "when, as it turns out, that's all the other person was waiting for."