Shoestring is a BBC detective drana set in Bristol and starring Trevor Eve as private detective Eddie Shoestring, who operatee his own show on Radio West, the local radio station. The programme ran between 30 September 1979 and 21 December 1980, in two series with 21 hour-long episodes. Eve opted not to return after two series, as he wanted to diversify into theatre, so the production team changed the setting to Jersey and created Bergerac, also following a detective returning to work after a bad period in his life.

Late to pitch her revolutionary time machine, inventor Olivia is interrupted by her future self, forcing her to choose between fortune and fame, or destroying her invention to save the world.

Set against the backdrop of the miner's strike, a working-class family must come to terms with the fate of their dying farm.