Ann Way Season: Shoestring - The Farmer Had a Wife
Shoestring is a delightful series which broadcast over two series in 1979 - 80. It's about the titular Eddie Shoestring, a former computer programmer who has had a breakdown and then started working as a private detective. One of his cases involves him proving the innocence of a presenter on the local radio station, Radio West, and his success at this results in him being taken on as a 'private ear' on the station, solving cases sent in by members of the public.
I know that regular readers will immediately be reminded of the series Public Eye, although the major difference is that Shoestring has much more tolerance for people than Marker, and thus this series comes across as a lot less bleak. In fact, it's completely delightful. It was set in an unnamed city, but was actually filmed in Bristol. The show also feels quite like Bergerac, which was actually inspired by Shoestring and replaced it in the scheduling after Trevor Eve didn't want to continue with the show after two series. And here is the coolest thing about this show: the fictional radion station that Shoestring works for is Radio West 237m MW. At this time Bristol apparently didn't have an independent radio station at all, but after this show was broadcast it got its first, called Radio West, and broadcasting on 238m MW. This tickles me inordinately.
In The Farmer Had a Wife, Shoestring is sent a tip about a local watercress farmer whose wife has vanished; the village gossip is that he has actually murdered her (actually the only major criticism I have of this series is that the cases Shoestring investigates are frequently ones which would have had Frank Marker immediately saying that he wouldn't touch it with a barge pole and they should go straight to the peelers). Nonetheless Marker's investigation immediately opens up an absolute wasp's nest of poison village gossip, infighting, intrigue and just terrible people.The man accused of killing his wife can only be described as incredibly difficult, and frankly seems to lock horns with everyone he meets.
To my delight, Ann Way plays the initial informant in the village who writes to the radio station wanting Shoestring to investigate this alleged murder. She plays the role with the most marvellous West Country accent, exactly the sort of accent we make fun of in the Midlands, and I wonder whether it's her own real accent, given that she was born in Zummerzet.
I don't want you to run away with the idea that my criticism of this episode would suggest you shouldn't watch it: I really rate this show and would certainly recommend it. Perhaps it's a sign of how good I think this show is that I would recommend people to watch it while this criticism may sound fairly terminal, which is this. If a man argues with everyone he meets, consistently obstructs the detective investigating his wife's disappearance, wants his wife back, can't apparently tell the truth to save his skin, and his wife has just disappeared without telling him where she has gone, well frankly it's not difficult to imagine that she doesn't want him to know. So there's a plot flaw in that Shoestring should very quickly have concluded that the wife also finds her husband a very difficult man and has gone off because she's had enough. There's a further problem with the plot in that when someone just disappears without taking any of their belongings with them or leaving a message, and the locals are insistent the husband has murdered her, well frankly that's not a matter which a private detective would touch. In this case Shoestring's employers the radio station would surely expect some oversight of what work he was doing and would forbid him to touch this case.
Nonetheless despite this criticism, this episode is a mass of beautiful scenery, interesting characters, and great dialogue, such that the unreality of the plot can be completely forgiven.
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