Shoestring

Lighthearted detective series set in the West Country, about radio-phone-in detective Eddie Shoestring.

Genre: Drama

Cast:Trevor Eve , Michael Medwin , Doran Godwin , Liz Crowther , Colin Maitland , Jeanna L'Esty , Julian Littman , Stewart Bevan , John Vine , John Cannon , Alan David , Peter Dean , Andy Bradford , Geoffrey Bateman , Nicholas Donnelly , Pippa Sparkes , Sheila Dunn , Shirley Anne Field

1Season 1

S1.E1 ∙ Private Ear

Sun, Sep 30, 1979

Call-girl Sarah Marshall kills herself on a beach, after stealing the car belonging to a man she had tried to contact, David Carn, popular DJ with Bristol radio station Radio West. Station boss Don Satchley asks private detective Eddie Shoestring to investigate any incriminating links between Carn and Sarah. Eddie is approached by a man named Willis, who tries to buy him off and is then beaten up by Willis's boss Barry Hendry. It is clear to Eddie that they are protecting one of Sarah's clients - not David Carn - and he must find out who.

2Season 1

S1.E2 ∙ Knock for Knock

Sun, Oct 7, 1979

Eddie is now Radio West's 'Private Ear', accepting sleuthing work for listeners. His first client is Claire Stevens, whose husband was killed in a hit and run by drivers of a white van. A tip-off leads Eddie to a duo of young fraudsters who go 'on the knock', buying antique furniture from gullible elderly people at less than the real value. After an encounter with a glamorous antiques dealer, who may be holding back information, the result of a radio appeal leads Eddie to a muddy confrontation with the 'knockers'.

3Season 1

S1.E3 ∙ Higher Ground

Sun, Oct 14, 1979

Higher Ground, a boarding school run by strict ex-Army major Hansford and his wife Jean, is being plagued by sadistic, sick stunts but Hansford refuses to call in the police, so Jean employs Eddie. Hansford, however, is wholly uncooperative. Jean tells Eddie that Hansford has a son, Rodney, by his first wife Betty. Betty committed suicide and Rodney was recently discharged from the same psychiatric hospital where Eddie was once a patient. Jean is killed but Rodney denies any involvement. Then Eddie learns of another possible suspect and also the reason why Hansford has resisted any contact with the law.

4Season 1

S1.E4 ∙ An Uncertain Circle

Sun, Oct 21, 1979

Marion Cutler asks Eddie to trace her boyfriend, Nick Forrest, who has disappeared from the coastal caravan park where he was staying, though Steve the owner denies all knowledge of Forrest. Eddie learns that Forrest was both a pilot and photographer and had chartered a plane to take aerial photos of the coast, sending the negatives to Marion. The concentration is on a disused fort and a 'circle' where a plane carrying drugs crashed into the sea. Eddie, the villains and two undercover cops all meet for a shoot-out on the fort.

5Season 1

S1.E5 ∙ Listen to Me

Sun, Oct 28, 1979

Adamant that her husband Harry was wrongly jailed for killing a shop assistant during a jeweller's shop robbery, Mel Shepherd threatens to jump from Radio West's roof unless Eddie finds the real murderer. Eddie approaches the arresting officer who points him towards a variety of other likely suspects. Ultimately he comes to discover that the victim was not shot in line with a robbery but was killed for a wholly different motive.

6Season 1

S1.E6 ∙ Nine Tenths of the Law

Sun, Nov 4, 1979

Mary Phillips asks for Eddie's help after her ex-husband Dennis snatches their little daughter June, a ward of court, with a view to taking her back to Australia with him. After hearing Eddie's radio appeal Dennis and June go on the run. With the police disapproving of his involvement Eddie's work is not helped when Mary's ebullient father Tom insists on interfering in the case. Eddie also notes that Mary is a hard drinker and, given June's own choice to stay with her father, he wonders whether she might be better off with Dennis. Sometimes, however, what is right and what is the law do not coincide, as Eddie learns.

7Season 1

S1.E7 ∙ The Link-Up

Sun, Nov 11, 1979

After Molly Tasker, director of a local women's refuge, accuses Radio West of ignoring domestic violence, Eddie investigates why the late Jackie Craig, whose wife is in the hostel, was unaccountably wealthy when he drowned. Eddie traces Craig's belongings to his ex-employer Jimmy Colefax, who is sailing round the world and whose wife Val is providing a daily link-up with him on the radio. However, a local radio ham alerts Eddie to the fact that Jimmy is apparently broadcasting from a nearby location, rather than thousands of miles away. He may be a fraud but is he also a murderer?

8Season 1

S1.E8 ∙ Stamp Duty

Sun, Nov 18, 1979

Stamp dealer Joss Hargreaves collapses and dies whilst being bundled into a car by heavies working for Strickland, a corrupt businessman whom Eddie is trying to expose. Milkman Andy Stapleton witnesses everything but is spotted by the heavies and goes on the run, having told Eddie. Knowing Andy's reputation as a liar when they were psychiatric patients together, Eddie is unconvinced until he himself is attacked and thrown from a car. Having discovered Hargreaves' double life and his connection with Strickland, Eddie sets a trap.

9Season 1

S1.E9 ∙ Find the Lady

Sun, Dec 2, 1979

Rock singer Toola asks Eddie to dissuade her sacked bass player Mole from his belief that his beauty queen girlfriend Chrissie was killed out of jealousy by the band's manager, Malcolm Kenrick. Mole is persistent despite a beach photographer showing Eddie a recent picture of Chrissie and the lady herself. When Mole is killed, apparently the victim of a drug overdose, Eddie sees that he stumbled on something Kenrick wished to keep quiet and that he was right in his accusation.

10Season 1

S1.E10 ∙ The Partnership

Sun, Dec 9, 1979

Sonia, the Radio West receptionist, is concerned for her friend, travel agent Jenny Kelson, whom she sees apparently being threatened by a young man. Eddie photographs and follows him, leading to a remote country house owned by a couple of dog breeders. Eddie discovers that they are burglars, tipped off by Jenny as to when householders will be on holiday and their homes empty. Jenny confesses she got involved to help finance her husband, a struggling artist with an upcoming exhibition. Eddie offers her a deal.

11Season 1

S1.E11 ∙ I'm a Believer

Wed, Dec 12, 1979

When Maddy Hopkins joins religious cult the Starshiners, her anxious mother, convinced that the group is out to get her trust fund money from her twenty-first birthday, asks Eddie to investigate. Maddy will hear nothing said against the group but Eddie suspects a racket and digs into their background, meeting the apparently sincere cult founder Stephen Steele. However, forging an uneasy alliance with Radio West news reporter Felicity Lamb, Eddie sets out to expose a conspiracy involving several interested parties.

1Season 2

S2.E1 ∙ Room with a View

Sun, Oct 5, 1980

Retired music hall singer Lettie Ross witnesses a murder in the empty house opposite her flat, but when the police and her daughter are dismissive, she calls in Eddie. His investigations lead to Duke Winsor, a slum landlord who has just purchased the house and Alan Fuller, another potential buyer - who proves to be the victim. In the event the basement flat in Lettie's block, leased to concert performers, is the key to the affair.

2Season 2

S2.E2 ∙ The Teddy Bears' Nightmare

Sun, Oct 12, 1980

Out fishing Don sees a thief rob a young couple of the woman's handbag but the couple themselves flee and fail to report the theft. Don retrieves the bag and Eddie traces it to Christine Page, who eventually admits that she and her married lover, Ken Bailey, are being blackmailed. However the blackmailer is not after money...

3Season 2

S2.E3 ∙ Mocking Bird

Sun, Oct 19, 1980

Young women are being mugged around the city and the perpetrator, a caller with an Ulster accent, keeps ringing Eddie and taunting him for his inability to catch him. The police are called in but smug inspector Healey is little help. After Sonia is attacked, Tom, a security guard at the station, and former policeman, recognizes the caller's voice from his days as a hospital DJ and points Eddie towards him. Finally Eddie and his tormentor meet face to face in the empty studio for a showdown.

4Season 2

S2.E4 ∙ The Mayfly Dance

Sun, Oct 26, 1980

Don asks Eddie to locate Jody Brent, a once popular singer whose big hit 'Lazy Daisy' is enjoying a revival on Radio West's easy listening show. Though Miriam, Jody's manager, claims he is in America, Eddie hears that he is living in Wales in seclusion. Mike Frewin, Jody's former band member, asks the station for royalties as he part wrote the song but is refused, after which he visits Vera who has requested it under the name of a girl who died twenty years earlier. Soon after Vera is found murdered. Having contacted Jody, Eddie learns that Frewin and Miriam were party to a terrible secret from two decades previously which they are desperate to hush up.

5Season 2

S2.E5 ∙ The Farmer Had a Wife

Sun, Nov 2, 1980

To encourage more human interest stories, Don persuades Eddie to help water cress farmer David Mortimer, whose wife Rosemary has disappeared for a second time, and is being accused by other villagers of murdering her, to try and locate her. The trail leads to Dr. Knightley, her ex-doctor, in whom she confided about her husband's jealous, controlling nature and with whom she had a child, now nine years old and adopted. Eddie eventually finds Rosemary - but will she return to her husband?

6Season 2

S2.E6 ∙ Utmost Good Faith

Sun, Nov 9, 1980

After her debt-ridden husband Tim has killed himself, Mary Reynolds asks Eddie's help in discovering why her credit facilities have been stopped when the debt concerned was twelve years earlier and apparently cancelled. Eddie discovers that Tim was working on a computer which diagnosed faults in cars and that the debt collection firm harassing Mary is linked to a large computer company anxious to bankrupt small firms like the Reynolds'. By leaning on a former colleague who has joined the debt collectors through fraudulent means Eddie is able to help Mary but not, apparently, his own credit rating.

7Season 2

S2.E7 ∙ Looking for Mr Wright

Sun, Nov 16, 1980

Erica's secretary Lois meets the charming Clive Wright through a dating agency but he disappears whilst they are in a restaurant and the restaurant staff and dating agency workers are equally unhelpful as to whether he existed. Eddie is warned off by a woman called Maggie and her two sons but eventually manages to locate the elusive Mr. Wright and to discover what he has done to anger Maggie and her family.

8Season 2

S2.E8 ∙ Another Man's Castle

Sun, Dec 7, 1980

Whilst Philip and Diana Hoskens are moving house the van containing all their furniture is stolen by a shady landlord called Terry Bowen to furnish a property he is letting to a young couple. One of them, Cleo, sells the colour television, which brings her into contact with Eddie, who is investigating the stolen furniture. It turns out that not only is Bowen trying to illegally evict an elderly tenant but he is also hiding two bank robbers in another of his properties. Eddie joins forces with Cleo to give Bowen his just deserts.

9Season 2

S2.E9 ∙ Where Was I?

Sun, Dec 14, 1980

Family man Keith Amery goes camping on the moors alone and sees a helicopter land but falls and hits his head, bringing on amnesia. On the advice of Eddie's old psychiatrist, Keith's wife asks Eddie to help Keith recall events, but with little success. At the same time an Australian girl called Denise arrives at Radio West, claiming to be a presenter seeking tips from Eddie. Whilst Eddie is occupied with Denise, her associates track down and abduct Keith. It transpires that he saw the dummy run of an exercise by Denise and her accomplices to spring a serving prisoner, Tom Laidlaw. Eddie 's task is to find Keith and stop the operation.

10Season 2

S2.E10 ∙ The Dangerous Game

Sun, Dec 21, 1980

Pete Johnson, a market trader who deals in stolen goods, gives his little son Mike an early Christmas present, an electric racing game, Lunar Race 2000, but it is faulty and blows up, hospitalizing young Mike. Pete initially lies to hospital staff over the cause of his son's injuries but eventually produces a second copy of the game, which indicates it is manufactured by the Wings' toy company. However Mr. Wing tells Eddie that it was withdrawn before it was ever marketed because of the fault and stored in the firm's warehouse. On examination it is found that ten of the games have been stolen. Eddie must find them to ensure that the children given them have a happy Christmas.