Hotpoint FEW12 stops?

My Hotpoint FEW12 washing machine stops when the water has filled up just before it starts to wash on all cycles. The only way to empty it is to turn to the spin program, but of corse the wash is not done. I have held in the restart button but this just re-fills and stops again. The filter is fine because it does empty on spin, it just seems to stop once water is filled then the active lights keeps flashing.
Can you help, is this something I can fix or has the programmer gone.?
Many Thanks