Shoestring: The Link Up (BBC-1 11 Nov 1979)

In The Link Up, Eddie is asked by Betty Craig, who is staying in a home for battered wives, to look into the death of her husband, always a bad lot he seemed to have come into quite a bit of money and she’d like her share of it after everything he put her through, as Eddie digs into the case he learns that Betty’s husband had been working as an oddjob man for Jimmy and Val Colefax. Jimmy is a well known yachtsman who has embarked on a round the world voyage and is keeping in regular contact with Radio West as part of a promotional deal, but if he is out at sea why are his radio signals being broadcast from a nearby boat yard?

The central plot is all quite convoluted and if examined closely doesn’t stand up overly well, it’s obvious from early on that something is amiss with the Colefaxs but as is usual with Shoestring its all still enormously entertaining. The best scenes are those featuring Mela White as the narky boss of the home for abused women, telling it like it is every chance she gets. Mela clearly impressed Robert Banks Stewart as she went on to appear in his next series Bergerac.

production details
UK / BBC One / 1×50 minute episode / Broadcast 11 November 1979

Writer: Peter King / Production Design: Humphrey Jaegar / Director: Douglas Camfield

Shoestring Season One Episode Seven

guest cast
JANET KEY as Val Colefax
JOHN GREGG as Jimmy Colefax
JOHN WOODNUTT as Dr Morris
KEITH BUCKLEY as Sam Houseman
MELA WHITE as Molly Tasker
SHARMAN MACDONALD as Betty Craig
STEWART BEVAN as Paul
HARRY WATERS as Harry
SYLVIA COLERIDGE as C.J. Daniels
LALA LLOYD as Miss Daniels
LARRY NOBLE as Pawnbroker
ALBERT MOSES as Tailor
SALLY LAHEE as Casting Director
BARRY WOOLGAR as Film Director
IAN FAIRBAIRN as First Actor
ANTHONY STAFFORD as Second Actor
MICHELLE MARRIOTT as Nurse
CHRISTINE EDMONDS as Patient
COLIN MAITLAND as Sound Engineer
SHEILA DUNN as Voice of Mrs Proudfoot