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Is that the episodes with Russell Boulter? The good-looking Scouser who had an affair with one colleague and then got murdered by another one?

I used to love Burnside. He had so many quotable lines.

"Tighter than a gnat's muff!"

And the way he called DS Greig a "Scotch ponce".

Hi Ian,

Ah, excellent tip! I will try and bear that in mind. Sorry you were unwell. My cold just goes and goes! I wish it would disappear but at least I'm getting better now before Christmas. Happy Christmas, and welcome back if you're in the library reading this in 2009!

Abby

Hi Ian,

Oh, I thought about you the other day cos "The Dangerous Game" was on! Christmassy. I think it was on on Friday. This morning when I turned on the telly it wasn't "Shoestring", it was something else..... Dorothy Sayers Mystery or something? No sign of Shoestring or Bergerac! So I suppose you're not missing much!

Have an excellent Christmas Ian. I've been a bit stressed cos all my plans came to nothing, I was ill, and so stuck at home with no chance to sort out the Christmas shopping or the food, but luckily I felt a bit better today so was able to get out shopping. I think honour is satisfied in terms of presents, give or take a forgotten Christmas card to an uncle. But it's impossible to remember everyone isn't it?

See you soon,

Abby

Hi Ian,

Yes, you should definitely see more "Waking the Dead". It's got this great dynamic between all these team members getting shouted at by Boyd who has this perpetual blobstrop. And Sue Johnston is in it, she's good too, they're always fighting while all the younger, hotter cast members make worried expressions in the background. And the plots are good, although occasionally they are very disturbing and dark and may give you nightmares if you are of a nervous disposition.

I'm not sure if I like that more or the same as "Silent Witness" the post-Amanda Burton episodes. There's a lot of fun chemistry between the three cast members in "Silent Witness" too.

In "The Return of the Saint" today the episode started out in a glamorous ski resort. Just like the episode from the other day so we thought it was the same one. But then, would you believe Simon Templar was wearing exactly the same pair of blue salopettes as the previous episode! I think maybe they were pretending to have a bigger budget than they actually had on that show. I mean Simon Templar ought to have been ashamed to be wearing the summer season of skiing fashion when it was definitely autumn! What a fashion faux-pas!!

Abby

Hi there,

I do remember "Sapphire and Steel"! I used to watch it and my Mum would always trot out her claim-to-fame that her piano teacher was also the teacher of the Scottish actor in "Sapphire and Steel" whose name escapes me. Ah, hang on, I'll Google it. David McCallum.

Trevor Eve in the 21st century just keeps on getting better. I think he's improved with age, just a shame that Boyd's so unlikeable. Although when he's intimidating suspects, I wish sometimes it were me in the interview room. He could intimidate a confession out of me any time he likes!!!

I have been watching "The Return of the Saint" and if its watched after "Shoestring" its realism (or lack of) is quite risible. Today, the Saint was chatting up a lady ski instructor. Then her brother skis downhill. Then the brother gets shot. Then the sister is slightly upset. But Simon Templar doesn't break a sweat, and about a minute later accuses her of being in on some scam that put him in front of a bullet. Whether the onset of grief or shock? The woman's brother's just died right in front of them!!!! What a load of tosh. Sadly my kids are getting into it in a big way now. I would switch over to Channel 4 but "Just Shoot Me" is also not very child friendly. (Sex gags about once a minute, stuff I don't want to explain to young kids!)

Abby

Hi Ian!



Yes, I liked Lettie Ross, I liked the way she sent out glamorous looking photos of herself to get the attention of Shoestring!

Did you see "Waking the Dead" last night? There was a funny moment in that where Peter Boyd was completely defeated by having to open an email attachment (ahh! Diddums!) For some reason the scene reminded me of Shoestring. Unfortunately I missed the last half hour as I was knackered and fell asleep. I'll have to watch for next time it's repeated. I'm sure Alibi won't keep me waiting long.

Abby

Another howler. Continuity people on Alibi: Please be aware that Sam Ryan doesn't work with the "Waking the Dead" crew. She may be taking on a case in Ireland in some episode but she wasn't in "False Flag" on "Waking the Dead" last night. I think if she were, Peter Boyd would be a bit disgruntled at some woman hogging his limelight. And the last thing she'd want is a disgruntled Peter Boyd!

I'm not annoyed or anything, I just found it funny.

Oops! Sorry Big Unc. I meant Kirkcaldy.

Get someone on the BBC news to say "Kircaldy" or "Dalry" or "Milngavie", or "Aberdour". They bother to figure out how to say Polish or African names, but they can't be bothered with Scotland. And to think they are probably surrounded by Scottish people at work they could stop and ask "How do you say this?"

It would be *extremely* cool if the Saint was actually about a stick man with a halo jumping off bridges and getting his halo all mixed up with a lady's feather boa. The show for me now also reminds me of a scene in "Alan Partridge" where he's air-drumming along to the theme tune while his employee Lynn is at a cemetery. Have you seen that? I must have been the same age as you when I saw "The Saint". But it annoyed me! Isn't it funny watching things you last saw as a little kid? The episode I saw the other day had a London setting, and that's cool, watching London streets from "them days".

The episode the other day featured the woman who was the girlfriend in the film "The Odessa File". It took me a while to place her because I had thought she was German. Doh! She must be English and can do a good German accent.

It's shoved Bergerac back into the sea.

I'm watching The Saint but the opening credits confuse and enrage me just as they did when I was a kid.... why does the stick man have a halo? Why is the stick man not actually in the programme?? All these conundrums used to do my head in as a child. And now my own children are just as annoyed as me that it's not a zippy show about a stick man with a halo. The credits promise much but don't deliver.

HIGHLANDER! SHOESTRING WAS BACK ON THIS MORNING!!!!!

That made my day.

It was the Toyah Willcox episode. I hope they keep going up to the one called "Teddy Bears Nightmare" cos I never saw that one.

I watch it cos I have a sort of loyalty to Nat Parker from his days in the late eighties when he starred in an excellent drama. So I watch him as Lynley and wonder if he's still got it. Whether he has or not very much depends on the length of his hair.

I'm really superficial. I must admit!

Hi there,

I suppose so, but in the most part I'm so pathetically grateful that Alibi exists and shows such great shows, that I don't mind about anything else. I find if I can achieve a Zen-like indifference to changes and cancellations in the schedule it serves me better, because the more I care the more frustrated I get. And I find that technology conspires against me when I get too passionate about a show - for example just at the point where I thought "Shoestring is excellent and I should be videoing this", my cable box broke down. And a couple of weeks later my video machine broke down. So I have lots of "Shoestring" episodes on videos I can't watch! If I cared a lot about it, I'd be unhappy. So I'll just think "I am glad I got to see it, maybe it will be repeated again, but my memories will see me through."

Also, with the bonkers continuity of episodes, it's like a little puzzle to figure out, what is going on in the character's private lives in Viscount Lynley (Lord Lynley?? Whatever) and it's like a fun exercise, because the storylines about the murders are all stand-alone, it's just the private lives that run in any kind of causal order, so I just watch and try and figure it out. I like a challenge. Like, is he married, is the baby born, is it dead, is he single, is he chasing after Havers? He seems to wistfully ask her out for a pint in every episode and she knocks him back every time, probably trying to keep their relationship professional. Fair play to her.

Hi Highlander,

You can't trust the Alibi information, I've learnt, you just have to hope for the best. I read on here somewhere they are obliged to show the different shows several times at different times of the day, so I bet we haven't seen the last of "Shoestring"!

No, I haven't ever got into "The Avengers" or any of those shows, they struck me as too camp and cartoonish to really hold my interest. I like programmes that are fairly credible and with characters I relate to. So I'm still on Alibi channel watching "Silent Witness" and "Waking the Dead" and I'm watching "The Inspector Lynley Mysteries" which I keep calling the Viscount Linley mysteries... I wonder if I'm the only one? But Alibi show them in mind bending order. So one day, tune in and Lynley's wife has had a dead baby and she's left him. Next time you tune in, he's just met this lovely young lady he wants to fall in love with. Next time, she's pregnant. Next time, Lynley's partner Havers is hassling him to ask out the lovely lady. I daresay one day I'll tune in and his three kids from his marriage to his next wife will be there hassling him for the keys to the Bentley, and the next episode, he will have just joined the police force and Havers will be sitting her GCSEs.

I'm confused, I admit it.

Sassenach also means Southerner, ie English people. It's just a colloquial usage.

Hi there Highlander,

I'd like to pretend I'm a busy person with a life, but I can't keep it up for long - I'm bereft without my morning dose of Shoestring! Also, I've never seen "The Teddy Bears Nightmare" episode from the second series cos my cable box was on the blink that day so I'll just have to hope that Alibi channel in their munificent benevolence sees fit to run the show again, and that right soon!

That emoticon is me, thinking about my mornings. "Bergerac" just isn't the same. Sorry.

Re your post, yes the final episode of series 2 was a good one to see at Christmas time. What a shame that everyone in that episode was partying and having a good time apart from Eddie.

There's lots of great music in the background, and sometimes the music pertains to the scene in a subtle and clever way, so well done to whoever chose the music, even if the cost of royalties is the reason we can't buy a DVD of the show. I liked the scene where Eddie is interviewing someone and "Video Killed the Radio Star" is on in the background. Although I suppose it could have been even more apt if the final episode was Shoestring being killed by a huge pile of VHS (or Betamax?) videotapes falling on him from a great height.

Gaelic is a tricky language even for lowland Scots. Never mind Sassenach continuity announcers.

Hi there,

Had a total imagination bypass when it came to coming up with an alias on this board so I went with my own initials. You can call me Abby if you like.

Personally I'm a big fan of strange relationships, like the one between Eddie and Erica. I suppose because life is always a bit more ambiguous than we would care to admit but it's very rare to come across that in television dramas, people are either lovers or they are not much else. So it's good to see the way those two in Shoestring have a very unconventional friendship. The funniest thing is when outsiders try to understand them, ie in the episode where Don Satchley is convinced that Eddie is living on his boat because he's fallen out with Erica, and he's giving him all this advice like get a shave and give her some flowers. And Eddie ends up throwing the flowers on the sofa and laughing at Don for trying to patch their relationship up. I liked that because it shows the way Don is almost trying to be a father figure, and Eddie's just sort of humouring him without standing up to him. I also liked that scene cos of the Nolans song in the background, just added to the mournful broken-hearted milieu that Don believes reflects Eddie and Erica's relationship!

In the first episode, Eddie and Erica are already friends, she knows him well enough to completely ignore him shouting at her to go away, so I guess their friendship would be pretty well established by then.

I think in "Waking the Dead", Peter Boyd is so blustery and arrogant around Gracy Foley because he's secretly a bit insecure and scared of her cos she's a headshrinker and he's got so much repressed stuff in his head he doesn't want her knowing about. He is a very "troubled" character but hasn't got the charm of Shoestring with it. *sigh* Oh well, I suppose Trevor Eve would be very bored playing good guys all the time.

She's very pretty. She's a good actress. She takes after her Dad, he has striking looks too. She makes "Silent Witness" very watchable, along with the rest of the cast of course.

Hi there Highlander,

I think Peter Boyd and Eddie Shoestring are too different to really think of them as the same person... occasonally in Shoestring when he's getting shouty and angry, I think, he's a bit Peter Boyd there. It would be interesting to see what happened next to the character Shoestring though. Would he ever actually get married to Erica Bayliss and make a decent woman of her, or would she be off with some chinless wonder lawyer type? And would Shoestring ever overcome his fear of computers?

I like "Waking the Dead", especially the way that Peter Boyd shouts at everyone and gets violent with the bad guys. Very watchable. I like his arguments with Sue Johnston as well, it's like, watch out, mum and dad are fighting!

Hi Highlander,

I'm jealous, I haven't seen that documentary! I've seen Trevor Eve's interview on Jonathan Ross but he doesn't go into a lot of detail in that about his clothes on the show. Did he start a trend of people wearing pyjama tops as suits I wonder? I do like his clothes on Shoestring cos they definitely suit the character. Do you watch "Waking the Dead" in the evening? Old Trevor Eve at night, shepherd's delight, young Trevor Eve in the morning, shepherd's warning.

Hi Highlander,

I'm jealous, I haven't seen that documentary! I've seen Trevor Eve's interview on Jonathan Ross but he doesn't go into a lot of detail in that about his clothes on the show. Did he start a trend of people wearing pyjama tops as suits I wonder? I do like his clothes on Shoestring cos they definitely suit the character. Do you watch "Waking the Dead" in the evening? Old Trevor Eve at night, shepherd's delight, young Trevor Eve in the morning, shepherd's warning.

Hi Highlander,

I noticed in today's episode that Shoestring was committing a grave fashion faux-pas of wearing a suit jacket with white trainers! Just goes to show that David Tennant as Doctor Who must have ripped off Shoestring. And here I thought he was being original. Personally, I disapprove, and will be writing a letter of complaint to the BBC in 1979. Does anyone have a time machine?

My favourite Charlie Hungerford line was "He's even richer than I am - if that's possible!" Haha, Don Satchley doesn't get so many quotable lines, it must be said.

Doesn't "duo" mean "more than one person" or even "two persons"? Is Nicci French the amalgamated name of two people? I'm a bit confused.

Hi Highlander,

LOL! I think Bergerac would win cos Shoestring would get that big mop of hair in his eyes which would obscure his view. Bergerac always had quite sensible hair, didn't he? And Bergerac doesn't seem to get clobbered in every episode like Shoestring does (from the episodes of "Bergerac" I have watched the last couple of days.) It's quite obvious that Bergerac is a reworking of Shoestring, cos Charlie Hungerford is like the radio station boss, although his involvement in every one of Bergerac's cases stretches credibility somewhat.

I watch way too much telly.

Thanks Vitaliano, I'm new to this series. I'll just keep watching whenever it's on. I don't think the character's private lives are front and centre so I don't mind too much if the story jumps about a bit. So far it just seems quite amusing that Havers and Lynley call each other "Sir" and "Havers", terribly formal of them, and even when they're admiring each other's pyjamas in hotel rooms in the middle of the night!

Jeffb - I think the info bands are just trying to get us to keep watching their channel. I don't mind cos it seems to happen on all television channels. I mean it's mildly annoying, but in the general scheme of things it's not much really.

I am guessing that the shows are shortened for content, it is shown during the day after all.

That "Shoestring" fan website is a brilliant one, very well researched.

Highlander, funnily enough I'm not "reliving" the shows, I think I saw them on telly in the late nineties, I think that's where I first discovered Trevor Eve, but I didn't see them all then. I didn't see the show as a child, I was 5 at the time, so way too young. I do remember watching lots of "Bergerac" so I must have got into shows like that just a bit later on. (I'm glad I didn't watch "Shoestring" in the seventies, it seems okay to fancy Trevor Eve in "Shoestring" but it's not okay to fancy John Nettles cos I remember watching "Bergerac" when I was little, and he's a grown up! LOL! No such qualms about Trevor Eve though.)

Yes, I wonder why Havers would have resigned if Lynley resigned? I can't lipread. And was that Helen he fancied, is she the one who goes on to marry him, lose a baby and leave him? The episodes I saw last week were about a Helen who had done all of that to him, so I'm guessing last night's were from a previous series.

I don't know if anyone at Alibi reads this. I concur it would have been better if the voiceover announcer had waited until the credits.

I don't mind as long as they show them all. There are a couple from the second series that haven't been shown yet. I'm videoing them, I don't mind if they're in the wrong order, I'm just glad they are being shown at all. Apparently you can't get this show on DVD for love nor money.

I have no problem with the little red dot.

"Silent Witness"! "Shoestring"! "Waking the Dead"! On at decent times on a regular basis!!! I can't believe people on here want to complain about the channel logo.

Hi Mark,

Yes, I agree.

What's been the best so far, do you think? I like "Mocking Bird" best because it was so dark and tense. It was more like a film than a television episode. But they're all good.

And next week they are repeating the whole series one again, hooray, cos I missed the first episode. It would be good to see how they established the characters.

Here are the ones I would like to see again.

"Never Come Back", 1989 on 1990?? a thriller starring Nathaniel Parker set in 1939, also starring James Fox.

"Mother Love", I can't remember when, late 80s or early 90s.

"First Born" starring Charles Dance, 1988? With an excellent Hans Zimmer score.

I agree with JT Mix, about early nineties Classic "The Bill" episodes.

"The Politicians Wife", in fact Alibi, if you could just go to the IMDb, look up Trevor Eve, and his entire canon of work, if you could put it all on the screen, I for one would be very grateful.

I think if you look at the listings, they will show all the episodes.

Even if they're not in order I'm absolutely loving this show!

Thankyou Alibi Channel and keep up the good work!