The Partnership

Putting sleeping tablets into three bags of sausages, Eddie dopes the dogs in the farm, and opens the
hut to find a store of household goods and furniture. Back at Erica's flat, Eddie hears a radio interview
with a man who had his property stolen whilst on holiday.

This leads Eddie to confront Jenny. She has been tipping off the Martins as to when people are going on
holiday, enabling easy theft of property. The Martins have been paying Jenny for her services and she has
been using this to support her husband's studio.

Eddie arranges a 'set-up' - Don agrees to put Eddie and Erica up in a hotel for the night, leaving her flat
empty. Jenny then tells the Martins that Erica has gone on holiday to Amsterdam, and the police
successfully arrest the burglars when they arrive.

Visiting Brian's exhibition, Erica ruefully remarks that the artist seems to have little talent. When they
return to her flat, Eddie suggests that Brian could always help him paint his boat….

Returning from lunch with her friend Jenny Kelson, Sonia looks out of a window at Radio West to see
Jenny being threatened by a thug named Ray. He throws an envelope on the seat of her car and
scratches its bonnet with his ring.

Calling in at Radio West with some information for her friend, Jenny inadvertently leaves the wrong
envelope for Sonia - the one Ray had thrown onto her car seat. The envelope is stuffed with money, and
a threatening note.

Eddie takes the note back to Jenny at the travel agency. Jenny tells Eddie that her husband, Brian, is a
penniless artist. She is mounting an exhibition of his work which will open shortly.

In a bar with Jenny and Brian, Sonia sees her friend being threatened by Ray once more. Eddie decides
to follow the woman to see what is happening. Hailing a taxi, he follows Jenny and Ray to a car park
along the motorway, outside of Bristol. Borrowing the camera of a young boy in a parked jeep, Eddie
takes photographs of Ray talking to Jenny.

Renting a car under the name of Don Satchley, Eddie follows Ray to a farm, then back to Bristol where
he takes further photographs. The car is impounded by the police for being illegally parked.

Visiting the farm, owned by the Martins, Eddie finds a locked shed and dupes the owners into believing
that he is looking to buy a dog from the pups that they breed.

Like "Knock for Knock", "The Partnership" is
another episode dealing in property scams (a
popular theme for "Shoestring", as it would
reappear in season two's "Another Man's
Castle"). Perhaps the only average episode of
series one, "The Partnership" does not contain
any remarkable plot twists. The most enjoyable
part of the episode is the central section,
containing Eddie's great "double-act" with the
kid, his use of the camera and the hired car.
There's more good acting from Trevor Eve when a
shotgun wielding Mrs Martin confronts a nervous
Eddie. It's pleasing to see Sonia getting a larger
part, too.

It is with this fifth episode that I think the character of Eddie Shoestring, ably inhabited by Trevor
Eve, finally comes into his own.

"THE PARNERSHIP" is not the most exciting episode of the series (the 'villain' of the piece
disappears half-way through, and is eventually apprehended off-screen), but this is not at all
important.

This is the first time that we get a fully rounded look at the lead character's entertainingly offbeat
behaviour. Whether goading a little kid to run up and kick the man he is following, spiking guard-
dogs' sausages with sleeping pills, or 'borrowing' a car-hire supervisor's own car only to see it later
being towed away, Eddie is on top form (although Don wouldn't agree as the bills start stacking
up). And his off-on relationship with Erica is on here as they spend the night at a hotel (courtesy
of Radio West), to allow the police to catch Ray and co. in the process of breaking in and robbing
her house.

A 'different' touch in this episode is evident in the portrayal of the Kelsons. Jenny Kelson is a
guilty party in this episode's scam, but only to fund her husband Brian's art exhibition. However,
after the scam is blown it turns out that he has no talent anyway. This lends an ironic poignancy
to the episode (and Eddie's joke to Erica that perhaps he could help paint his boat is an amusing
tag).