Eddie Shoestring
Created By Robert Banks Stewart

After wigging out and destroying a £500,000 computer, EDDIE SHOESTRING, a scruffy computer expert, lands a job at a Bristol radio station as a phone-in host, a sort of "private ear", who solves callers' problems. It doesn't sound like much but Shoestring is generally regarded as one of the best, and one of the most popular, British private eye shows of all time.

Emotionally unstable, described by his creator as "twitching, maniac and irreverent", Eddie somehow manages to solve the callers' problems, everything from missing persons to the most mundane matters. Not for Eddie the machine-gun toting gangsters and high-speed car chases of most PI shows. In fact, even his car was unpredictable. A second-hand Ford Cortina, it too was no stranger to complete breakdown. Yet somehow, Eddie (wonderfully played by Trevor Eve) perseveres, and his radio show becomes a hit, much to the delight of formerly skeptical station boss Don Strachey.

Creator Stewart, left in the lurch when Trevor Eve left the show after only two seasons, turned around and created the even more successful (but a lot less interesting) BERGERAC.

FIELD REPORT

• There were also two spin-off books: Shoestring (1979) and Shoestring's Finest (1980). Both were by Paul Ableman (1927-2006). The first book serves as a sort of "origin story" and adapts the pilot episode and "Stamp Duty.". The second is an original story. They're both very enjoyable, and the first book is so well done that if you didn't know otherwise, you might imagine that it was the inspiration for the TV series! by ther way, Paul Ableman was an avant garde novelist and respected screenwriter who wrote novelisations for the BBC in order to supplement his more personal stuff. Unfortunately, he became better known by the public for these works, rather than his original novels."
  (Helen Hughes)

LATEST RUMOUR

• (March 2000) A recent newspaper interview with Sharon Maughan stated that she and Trevor Eve, through their joint TV production company, are planning some kind of Eddie
  Shoestring revival. I haven't heard anything since...

TELEVISION

• SHOESTRING
  (1979-80, BBC)
  21 60 minure episodes
  Created by Robert Banks Stewart
  Starring Trevor Eve as Eddie Shoestring
  with Michael Medwin as Don Satchley
  Doran Godwin as Erica Bayliss
  Liz Crowther as Sonia

• 1st Series (1979)
• "Private Ear" (September 30 , 1979)
• "Knock For Knock" (October 7, 1979 )
• "Higher Ground" ( October 14, 1979)
• "An Uncertain Circle" (October 21, 1979 )
• "Listen to Me" (October 28, 1979)
• "Nine Tenths of the Law" (November 4, 1979 )
• "The Link-Up" (11 November 1979)
• "Stamp Duty" (November 18, 1979 )
• "Find the Lady"(December 2, 1979 )
• "The Partnership" (December 9, 1979 )
• "I'm a Believer" (December 12, 1979)
  
  
• 2nd Series (1980)
• "Room With a View" (October 5, 1980 )
• "The Teddy Bears Nightmare" (October 12, 1980)
• "Mocking Bird" (October 19, 1980 )
• "The Mayfly Dance" (October 26, 1980 )
• "The Farmer Had a Wife" (November 2, 1980)
• "Utmost Good Faith" (November 9, 1980 )
• "Looking For Mr. Wright" (November 16, 1980 )
• "Another Man's Castle" (December 7, 1980)
• "Where Was I?" (December 14, 1980 )
• "The Dangerous Game" (December 21, 1980 )

TIE-INS

• Shoestring (1979; by Paul Ableman)
• Shoestring's Finest (1980; by Paul Ableman).

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to Helen Holmes for the field report.