Shoestring: The Link-Up (Sylvia Coleridge Season)

Content warning: domestic violence

Shoestring had previously never appeared on this blog but has cunningly sneaked in three times recently, due to the appearance of these actors to whom I award a 'season' of blog posts.

This one is a very straightforward account of detection, which just happens to go by a circuitous route. It starts when Shoestring is approached by a woman living in a hostel for battered wives, and through Shoestring following a lengthy trail of clues, it ends up being an investigation of a completely different mystery. The wife wonders why her husband's possessions at the time of his death were unexpectedly luxurious and wants to know whether there is any other lucre going because she could do with it. However the episode ends up being Shoestring's investigation of what happened to the actual owner of the husband's jacket. The 'link-up' of the title is about a woman doing 'link-up' radio broadcasts on Radio West with her husband who is sailing around the world: much of the latter part of the episode revolves around this.

I would love to say more than this about the plot but every time I've tried to I ended up giving away the ending, which I've decided not to do. Unfortunately this means that I will seem overly critical of this episode, and honestly while it does have some severe problems, it's more than good enough for me to recommend to other people to watch.

Sylvia Coleridge has a marvellous role as a beer-drinking radio ham who gives Shoestring a major breakthrough in what is happening in front of him. She fills the role as if it was written for her, and it really could have been. The episode is also filled with other wonderful characters, including a dodgy hypnotist, a pawn broker, and a collection of actors at an audition.

Which brings me to my criticisms.

The first is about the audition scene, where Shoestring goes to an office where auditions are being held because he wants to see the label in the blazer one of the actors has bought from the pawn broker so that he can find out the name of the original owner. It is implausible that a room full of actors would happily chat with a stranger about their clothing in that situation, and while the scene is played straight it would fit better in a comedy. It seems to take the episode beyond the bounds of reality.

And then we have the depiction of the tailor Mr Chatterjee, who is quite happy to acknowledge that he calls himself Mr Carruthers and Mr Montrose on his clothing labels. When Shoestring seems taken aback by this simple fact, he understandably points out that he can't really be surprised by the names Mr Chatterjee uses, when he goes around calling himself Shoestring. The depiction of Chatterjee is, I think, rather problematic.

You will readily see that this episode is filled with the most magnificent collection of characters.

Finally the major problem with this episode, which apparently caused some controversy at the time, is the depiction of battered wives and those concerned about them, as man-hating harridans who aren't above a bit of blackmail and completely unapproachable. Neither do I like the way Shoestring talks the manager of the hostel round by saying that he is putty in most women's hands. This depiction of the women and Shoestring's attempt to ingratiate himself, which comes across as flirty, is the major misstep in this one. It's also strange in this series, which deals with all sorts of difficult matters with great sensitivity.

This isn't a criticism as such, but the plot of this episode is also very winding and keeps introducing new people, so it does require concentration. I have had to watch it four times to write this blog post, and have also found the summary at eddieshoestring.co.uk

Overall a worthy, if flawed, episode of this excellent series, which provides a wonderful role for Sylvia Coleridge.

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