Shoestring (1979)
Shoestring was a BBC television show set in Bristol. It featured a private detective with his own show on Radio West, the local radio station. The programme ran between 30 September 1979 and 21 December 1980, in two series with 21 one hour-long episodes. Star Trevor Eve decided not to return to the role after two series, as he wanted to diversify into theatre roles, so the same production team changed the format to be based in Jersey and created Bergerac, also about a detective returning to work after a bad period in his life.
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Episode 1 - Private Ear
Release Date: 1979-09-30Private detective Eddie Shoestring is asked by Radio West to look into the life of Sarah Marshall, a prostitute who has committed suicide. She died in a Rolls Royce belonging to David Carn, the station's most popular disc jockey, immediately after she had desperately tried to see him, and Radio West wants Eddie to show Sarah had no connection with their man.
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Episode 2 - Knock for Knock
Release Date: 1979-10-07Eddie nervously does his first ""Private Ear"" program and tries to locate the drivers of a van who are responsible for killing a young woman's husband in a car accident.
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Episode 3 - Higher Ground
Release Date: 1979-10-14Eddie goes to work for Jean, the wife of Major Hansford, a tough prep school headmaster (and retired Army officer) whose small school is being threatened by a series of nasty pranks.
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Episode 4 - An Uncertain Circle
Release Date: 1979-10-21Marion Cutler, a social worker, asks Eddie to look for Nick Forrest, one of her charges who has gone missing. Nick is a remarkable fellow who had been living in a hut on the beach. But Steve, the owner of the hut, tells Eddie he's never heard of him. The mystery begins to centre on some aerial photographs of the coast-line taken by Nick, and Eddie soon finds he is onto a dangerous gang of drug-smugglers.
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Episode 5 - Listen to Me
Release Date: 1979-10-28The wife of a convict threatens to throw herself off the roof of the Radio West building unless Eddie investigates her claim of a miscarriage of justice. Her husband was jailed for killing a shop assistant while robbing a local jeweller's shop - but did he do it?
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Episode 6 - Nine Tenths of The Law
Release Date: 1979-11-04A distraught woman asks Eddie to find her daughter, who she is sure has been kidnapped by her ex-husband.
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Episode 7 - The Link-Up
Release Date: 1979-11-11A militant defender of abused women lodges a complaint with Eddie that leads him to Jimmy Colefax, who is trying to sail around the world in a homemade boat.
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Episode 8 - Stamp Duty
Release Date: 1979-11-18Andy Stapleton, an old friend of Eddie, witnesses the murder of a stamp dealer and asks his old friend for help when the thugs come after him.
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Episode 9 - Find the Lady
Release Date: 1979-12-02Toola, a rock singer, asks Eddie to find the missing girl friend of an ex-member of her band but the search leads to secrets someone is willing to kill for.
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Episode 10 - The Partnership
Release Date: 1979-12-09Sonia witnesses a casual friend, Jenny Kelson, being harassed by a bully. When Jenny later accidentally leaves an envelope full of money with Sonia, Eddie picks up the story and looks into what Jenny is hiding.
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Episode 11 - I'm a Believer
Release Date: 1979-12-12A distraught mother asks Eddie to look into a cult her daughter has gotten involved with called the ""Starshines"", and who stand to receive her 15,000 pound inheritance in a few weeks.