TREVOR EVE

Dene & Nick: How did you come to be cast in the series?

Trevor Eve: I was cast in the series by creator Robert
Banks Stewart. I was doing a movie of Dracula at the time
so there was some interest in me.

DK/NS: How much of the character of Eddie was fleshed
out beforehand, or was his persona shaped by you (i.e.
was he anything like yourself, or very different)?

TE: The Robert Banks Stewart script was extremely well-
fleshed out but obviously the actor brings his personality and
idiosyncrasies to the role.

DK/NS: Do you feel Eddie changed over the course of the
series (and was he a particularly enjoyable role to play)?

TE: [He] was a very enjoyable part to play. The character
did develop and it's very difficult to keep the initial agonies
he had over being a computer programmer through two
series but maybe I would have like more of his eccentricities
to develop.

DK/NS: Are there any episodes that you recall
specifically, either for the way they turned out, or because
of certain guest artistes/writers/directors who you were
working with?

TE: One of the episodes, about the stalker in 'Radio West',
was [in fact] changed by the director Ben Bolt and we
created a Hitchcockian ending which people weren't that
keen on at the time but turned out to be the most successful
episode. ["MOCKING BIRD" from Series 2]

DK/NS: As someone who has enjoyed great success in
many different fields, what was the 'creative process' like
on such a genre series, was the end result satisfying for
an actor?

TE: The creative process on a series like Shoestring is
very difficult to monitor in terms of keeping up standards as
we were shooting 10/11 storylines in a matter of months,
therefore the demands on the scriptwriter were enormous.
But when they were successful, it was very satisfying.

DK/NS: How do you feel the show stands up?

TE: I haven't seen any episodes recently but the quality of
directors such as Ben Bolt, Marek Kanievska and Martin
Campbell, all of whom went on to make feature films,
certainly gave it a look that I'm sure is still appealing.

DK/NS: Do you think that a revival of the series is feasible
today, and would you welcome playing Eddie Shoestring
again if an offer arose?

TE: I think it would be fascinating to revive Eddie
Shoestring, especially with the boom of the internet, which
I'm sure he would have got deeply involved in.

In the Radio Times dated 31 August to 6 September 2002, to publicise the
beginning of Series 2 of Waking the Dead, Trevor Eve was featured in the then-
regular TV C.V. page. Amongst his various television roles discussed was of course
Shoestring, of which Mr Eve had this to say: "I'd just done a film with Olivier and I
was hugely reluctant to do Shoestring -- the climate was different then, and for an
actor to be in a TV series was taboo. But creator Robert Banks Stewart was an
original and had very quirky ideas for that time. In the seventies, cop dramas were
right on the nose: you dressed well and had a great car, whereas Shoestring had a
crap car and wasn't very well mentally. I'm a huge fan of the programme and I
bought the rights. I saw the repeats in January [on BBC1] and I could remember
filming every episode. Every now and then I think, as does the BBC, of bringing it
back in a two-hour film format, doing a "20 years on" thing. But it's not something I'm
working night and day to do".

Added 10th December 2004. With thanks to article author William Gallagher