Eddie is asked to investigate when Philip and Diana Hosken's furniture vanishes while being moved to their new house. Retired boxer Terry Bowen, an acquaintance of Erica's, proves to be up to no good.
Erica's friend Lois goes on a blind date with Clive, but he is chased out of a restaurant dining room into the bathroom and disappears. Eddie investigates.
Rosemary Mortimer, the wife of a water cress farmer, has disappeared for the second time, and her husband David is being persecuted by villagers who believe he has killed her. Don wants Eddie to raise the profile of his radio show, and Eddie offers to help Mortimer find what has happened to Rosemary.
Satchley asks Eddie to find a long-forgotten rock star whose records have found new popularity on Radio West's nostalgia program.
Eddie finds himself on the edge of another breakdown when a caller taunts him with several muggings and an attack on Sonia, daring the ""Private Ear"" to catch him.
Don sees a man stealing a handbag from a woman's car, and when he asks Eddie to return the empty bag to its owner, the Radio West 'private ear' hears a nasty tale of blackmail.
Shoestring was a BBC television show set in Bristol. It featured a private detective with 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 one hour-long episodes. Star Trevor Eve decided not to return to the role after two series, as he wanted to diversify into theatre roles, so the same production team changed the format to be based in Jersey and created Bergerac, also about a detective returning to work after a bad period in his life.