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Poison phone-ins…threats to a disc jockey. Radio West hires private investigator Eddie Shoestring, who discovers it may be a longer-running job than he thought…

Series 1 Episode 1: "PRIVATE EAR" written by ROBERT BANKS STEWART directed by DOUGLAS CAMFIELD

CAST & CREW

Original BBC1 tx: 30 SEPTEMBER 1979 2110 - 2205hrs, watched by 18.7 million Filming dates: 5 - 21 March 1979

SYNOPSIS BY NICK

Following an off-screen trauma, a young prostitute, Sarah Marshall, desperately attempts to contact David Carn, a middle aged, middle of the road DJ at Radio West. When Carn refuses to see her, Sarah steals his car and drives to the coast where she overdoses on alcohol and pills.

When Sarah's body is found beside Carn's Rolls Royce the next morning, Radio West boss Don Satchley is concerned with proving that the DJ is unconnected with the girl.

Barrister Erica Bayliss has been invited to take part in a legal phone-in at Radio West. When Satchley asks her for legal advice about the Carn situation, Erica says that she may be able to help him clear Carn's name. Erica introduces Satchley to her tenant, Eddie Shoestring, a luckless private investigator.

below left: David Carn below right: Sarah overdoses

above: Sarah Marshall

Eddie's investigations lead him to discover, via the owner of a 1920s theme disco, that Sarah was a prostitute who worked from a health club in Bristol. Visiting her flat, Eddie finds her 'little black book' in which the name of the taxi company she used was written. This in turn leads Eddie to a group of Bristol based businessmen who frequent the health club and warn him not to investigate any further.

Erica's legal phone-in

Eddie at the bootlegger's disco

At the club, Eddie gets the name of the company the businessmen are affiliated with. Visiting the head of the company, and the organiser of the prostitute business, Eddie finds that he is none other than Sarah's father. It had been he who had been Sarah's last client.

The Marshalls identify their daughter

Eddie sketches a nervous Willis

Carn admits to having had an affair with Sarah, and Eddie promises to be discrete. He has, after all, cleared Carn's name. Carn resigns and Eddie is offered his timeslot, becoming Radio West's new "Private Ear", a phone-in detective who aims to help listeners with their problems.

Eddie becomes a problem for Tony Hendry

Visiting David Carn

Eddie's Sketches

NICK'S REVIEW

"Private Ear" is a good first episode, more akin to "Listen to Me" and the darker half of the second series than the majority of scripts from "Shoestring's" initial run. The supporting regulars have a lot to do here. Douglas Camfield's direction shapes the episode, adding touches like the freeze frame of Sarah. Lots of quirky locations - the bootlegger's disco and the vandalised railway carriage - mix with subtly memorable minor characters, such as that played by Tony Haygarth and William Russell's David Carn. Robert Banks Stewart's script manages to achieve the near impossible - familiarising viewers with the "Shoestring" characters and set up, whilst simultaneously presenting an intriguing mystery.

Eddie tells Willis a little bit about his past

Don Satchley, Head of Radio West

Click here for ROBERT BANKS STEWART's character descriptions of the four regular characters from his script for "PRIVATE EAR":

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS BY DENE

Shoestring begins with a solid mystery written by series creator/producer Robert Banks Stewart (from a story by Richard Harris). This is exactly as RBS intended Shoestring to be from the off - an updated Philip Marlowe, and as such is replete with seedy Chandleresque settings (the vandalised railway carriage, etc.) plus a veritable rogue's gallery of crooks for Eddie to contend with: Tony Hendry, Willis, Len Tilley. The big difference to the whole Chandler angle, is of course Eddie. He has the integrity of Marlowe certainly (and the bravery -- Eddie is certainly fearless in his investigations, leading him to many clobberings!). But his endearing manner, vulnerability, shambling gait and little eccentricities (not to mention his background) are very different, and very modern. As played by Trevor Eve, I feel Eddie is very much at home in his job as a private eye - he seems fascinated by people, and whether he likes them or doesn't, he is at his best reacting to them. Eddie mentions his breakdown and smashing up of computer equipment briefly to Willis in one scene in this introductory episode, but throughout the week to come his backstory is never outlined laboriously - instead details are subtly placed here and there. One of my favourite elements in this story is David Carn, Radio West DJ on whom suspicion initially falls. He is, we are told, a former actor, a 50s matinee idol in the vein of Bogarde, Hawkins, Finch (says Don) - Carn even mentions the title of one of his movies: Warlords of Gaul! Wonderfully portrayed by William Russell, he is a very rich character whom I'm sure RBS delighted in writing. The other three regulars are of course also introduced in "PRIVATE EAR". Erica Bayliss the intelligent, independent lady barrister -- and Eddie's landlady, with whom he enjoys an off-on mutually convenient relationship! Their dialogue together is a joy, Doran Godwin making the most of her mordant exasperation with Eddie's bizarre behaviour. Then there is Sonia, young and super-efficient Radio West secretary played with good-humour by Liz Crowther. And finally Don Satchley, suave, usually unflappable Radio West MD, keen to reign Eddie in at times but nevertheless genuinely fond of him and delighted with his work as a station Private Ear - a performance full of charm by Michael Medwin. In all, a marvellous quartet of regulars who always make Shoestring a joy to watch.

The actor Ian Fairbairn filmed the role of David Carn's general factotum, John, in a scene near the beginning of the episode when Carn's agent telephones him to ask about his connection with the Sarah Marshall case, but this was edited for reasons of time. Here, Mr Fairbairn, who worked many times with "PRIVATE EAR" director Douglas Camfield, discusses his involvement with Shoestring: From Douglas Camfield - A Tribute by Howe/Stammers/Walker (Frame Publications, 1990): "[Douglas Camfield] was a good support man. I'd had a pretty rotten spell, and he was telling me about Shoestring and Robert Banks Stewart, and he said, "Why don't you write to him - write a 'different' letter, something that'll make him read." And so I wrote this crazy letter, saying something about me being the "best, unknown has-been!", which actually tickled Banks Stewart's sense of humour tremendously, and the next thing I knew I was cast for the first episode of Shoestring. Subsequently, that got cut, so Douglas got me back in a later one - ["The Link-Up"]"

In his book THE PENGUIN TV COMPANION (Penguin Books 2001, 2nd Ed.), Jeff Evans provides this evidence of Shoestring's lasting legacy:"the name RADIO WEST was bought up by the real-life independent radio station set up to serve the Bristol area" (p. 542) KATE PITTS (see above) adds this: "When Bristol got it's first commercial radio station back in the early 80's they called it Radio West, it's GWR FM now"

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