Shoestring. Where did they film it?

[wellpip]

I was watching an episode of Shoestring today and my wife asked if I knew where they filmed it. Toyah Willcox and Christopher Biggins played the baddie in this one. The location had a lovely pier and esplanade.. Any ideas, sorry I was not playing to much attention while it was on?



Thanks...

[Geoffers]

name='wellpip']I was watching an episode of Shoestring today and my wife asked if I knew where they filmed it. Toyah Willcox and Christopher Biggins played the baddie in this one. The location had a lovely pier and esplanade.. Any ideas, sorry I was not playing to much attention while it was on?



Thanks...

I think was Weston-Super-Mare.

[GoggleboxUK]

IMDb has this:



"Shoestring" (1979) - Filming locations



That particular episode is called Find the Lady which helped me find this on Amazon:



"Is it nearly 30 since the Bristol private eye came on tv,Trevor Eve played the part to perfection,filmed on location in the West Country,many viewers will recognise the sea front at Weston Super Mare in the episode "Find the Lady""

[frame69]

My local radio station was radio west and had links to this sunday night tv drama.Maybe it was filmed around bristol,certainly recognised clifton and ashton court.(posh places)

[wellpip]

Many thanks, very much appreciated. I now know where my wife is going to drag me next your for our holidays..

[GoggleboxUK]

Just show her this, she can be there now:



Grand Pier Pavilion Webcam

[Geoffers]

name='frame69']My local radio station was radio west and had links to this sunday night tv drama.Maybe it was filmed around bristol,certainly recognised clifton and ashton court.(posh places)

Yes, it was very much Bristol and the West Country. Eddie's landlady/girlfriend had a flat in Royal York Crescent, Clifton!



There was an excellent website which has temporarily lapsed but can still be viewed at: Home

[penfold]

The dock where his boat was docked is the marina 200 yds West of the SS Great Britain.......if you post images of precise parts you want to identify, I may well recognise them.

[harryfielder]

Brought back memories.....





SHOESTRING…Trevor Eve…BBCTV…

I’m off down to Bristol and Western Super Mare for ten days to work on this.

I’m playing a baddie and Christopher Biggins is my boss.

Also in the cast are, Toyah Wilcox, Chris Jagger (Mick’s brother) and Gary Holton.

Gary was to go on and star in Auf Wiedersehen Pet.

My main job on the show was to look ugly and hassle Gary and to make his character behave himself. A slap here and a slap there.

In one night scene I throw him off the pier into the sea (Two takes) at Weston-Super-Mare.

(We used stuntman Stuart Fell for the shot)

A lot of the time I would help the crew keep Joe Public from staring down the lens of the camera. It was called public liaison work. The BBC has a policy that if someone is in the way of the shot the first words you say is ‘’Excuse me sir/madam’’…I spent a lot of time on the beach with those lines.

Sadly Gary Holton died a few years later and still a very young man…



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...de91_thumb.jpg



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v422/harryfielder/actors/Shoestring-Series1Episode90_thumb.jpg



Aitch,

[kline]

1) I thought the heavy looked familiar. Nice to see Harry on form.

2) Some of the WSM scenes were set on the Old Pier/Birnbeck Island, unfortunately no longer open to the public. The New Pier (underneath which Gary Holton woke up) caught light a couple of years ago too. The Open top bus shot on the prom is a good one too.

3) But where was the Tulah-Toyah gig filmed ?

4) Was the cave (the drug factory) on the quayside by St Mary Redcliffe Bristol (where they built the Matthew, across the dock from the Severn Shed) or further over towards the Great Britain.

[45doyle]

The episode name escapes me, but they filmed one on the 'The Light Ship' and used genuine passers-by as extras on the boat. How do I know? I was there, though my friend (Stephen Peacock) was actually on the boat with the film crew and Trevor Eve.

[Mikey]

From what I've been told and from research of my own, Shoestring was shot mainly on location around the Bristol, Weston Super Mare and Bath area.



With all the interest in filmed TV series locations, I'm surprised that someone has not made the effort to compile a listing.

[ChuckEddie]

I haven't watched this since first broadcast.



As with any series filmed in your home city, each episode was spoiled by illogical traverses of Bristol, this includes Casualty (until people can spot the join with Cardiff), Softly Softly, Target (remember that) and more recently Being Human and Mistresses.



Back to the point. The entrance to Radio West was in Welsh Back, just off Bristol Bridge, if you Gurgle Planet this you can find it. As has already been said most of the city bits were filmed in Clifton, Redland and Hotwells.



On Radio West, this was a ficticious station, but when commercial radio started they thought it would be a wizard idea to call themselves Radio West, it later became GWR and so on.



If I acquire the series and watch I might make a list.

[Cooper S]

Not all of Shoestring's locations were in the West Country - sometimes the crew only ventured as far as West London - or Slough (The cooling towers of Slough power station can be seen in one episode !).

[penfold]

name='kline']1) I thought the heavy looked familiar. Nice to see Harry on form.

2) Some of the WSM scenes were set on the Old Pier/Birnbeck Island, unfortunately no longer open to the public. The New Pier (underneath which Gary Holton woke up) caught light a couple of years ago too. The Open top bus shot on the prom is a good one too.

3) But where was the Tulah-Toyah gig filmed ?

4) Was the cave (the drug factory) on the quayside by St Mary Redcliffe Bristol (where they built the Matthew, across the dock from the Severn Shed) or further over towards the Great Britain.

Screengrab time???

[harryfielder]

We did film inside a music club in West London with me dragging Gary out to throw him off the pier..In Western....LONG THROW....



Aitch,

[Cooper S]

I think someone else went into a building in Bristol and tried to jump off it in Harrow...

[Mikey]

Okay, I’ve come across a few more Shoestring locations.



In the episode Knock For Knock, Eddie’s Hillman Hunter is pushed into a mud bank in the Seven Estuary by a Transit van, with the Severn Road Bridge clearly visible in the background.



I have found four other locations by trawling the net, but unfortunately the information does not indicate which episodes had footage shot there.



The Blue Lagoon open-air swimming pool, which was located in the village of Severn Beach, near the Severn Road Bridge. However, this area has since undergone extensive redevelopment and is now covered by housing.



The market in Dorchester, Dorset, is mentioned on a website as being a location used in the filming of the series.



The beach at Swanage in Dorset was another location for the series.



Southampton Railway Station.



Further to this…



I also seem to remember the Clifton Suspension Bridge appearing in the background of shots.



There’s an episode where some convicts are on a work detail on Dartmoor, but I cannot remember the title of the episode.



The finale of the episode An Uncertain Circle was filmed on the abandoned Napoleonic sea fort, which looks like one of the four near Portsmouth.



Just to add to my previous comments, I’m surprised that no one has gone to the trouble to research Shoestring locations. Almost all the filming locations used in both The Sweeney and The Professionals (from the same time period) have been located and so I would have thought that Shoestring would have the interest in it for someone to do the same.

[Geoffers]

name='Mikey']Okay, I’ve come across a few more Shoestring locations.



Just to add to my previous comments, I’m surprised that no one has gone to the trouble to research Shoestring locations. Almost all the filming locations used in both The Sweeney and The Professionals (from the same time period) have been located and so I would have thought that Shoestring would have the interest in it for someone to do the same.

Good work! As both a fan of the series and a resident of Bristol I do feel I should make an effort to weigh in with a few. I shall start re-watching my (butchered) recorded from TV episodes and report my findings. Off-hand I can recall Nine Tenths of the Law had a scene at the Corn Exchange, Bristol City Centre. And the externals of Erica's flat is Royal York Crescent, Clifton, Bristol. Room with a View features the Bristol Hippodrome. There are lots more I hope to recognize.

[Mikey]

name='Geoffers']Good work! As both a fan of the series and a resident of Bristol I do feel I should make an effort to weigh in with a few. I shall start re-watching my (butchered) recorded from TV episodes and report my findings. Off-hand I can recall Nine Tenths of the Law had a scene at the Corn Exchange, Bristol City Centre. And the externals of Erica's flat is Royal York Crescent, Clifton, Bristol. Room with a View features the Bristol Hippodrome. There are lots more I hope to recognize.

Geoffers



I’m reliably informed that the Hippodrome theatre in Bristol also appears in the opening titles along with St Michael’s Hill and Brandon Hill, also in the city.



The floating public house seen in several episodes was called “The Lightship” and this was permanently moored in Bristol Harbour at the time.