Friday, January 12, 2018
Just tie up the shoelaces of your mind
BBC – TREVOR EVE – SHOESTRING – 2017
(1979-1980)
This series I had wanted to find on DVD for more than twenty
years finally came out in 2017, thirty-eight years after its creation. But here
it is and it was sufficiently well reformatted for the image to look normal.
The characters are not crushed vertically nor stretched horizontally. So they
look normal.
The location of this series is Bristol and around and we
cross the toll bridge finally in the last episode, and twice mind you. The
people do not have too strong an accent and their English is close to standard.
After all, Bristol is a university city with a very famous and good university.
They do not insist too much on the past of this city and harbor that is twinned
with Bordeaux because they have one past fortune in common: they were both
slave-trade ports.
The series concentrates on local cases that require a
private eye, in this case, a private ear. The local cases have to do with some
social problem most of the time with a background of some trafficking shady
people who try to rob other people, to fool other people, to make a profit
illegally and on the run, to exploit some categories of people, particularly
down on the social scale. These small and even petty criminals are pure
self-centered people who do not even want to think of the consequences of their
acts on the victims.
We could compare this series with Bergerac which is also on
this line of local criminal cases with a local detective. The main difference
is that Bristol here is practically the sole location and you do not have some
criminals who come from far away, from outside the region, the country,
international traffickers. Except for one or two cases. That makes this series
rather sweet and cozy for some evening entertainment.
The last remark I will do is that Trevor Eve is perfect for
his role. He is cool, easy-going, friendly especially with victims, in a
relationship that is in no way permanent or continuous, rather a free
relationship. For 179-80 he is also quite open to the lifestyles the people he
is dealing with may choose and his palette of characters is quite open as for
such orientations and choices. That makes this chap rather sympathetic. Yet he
is too often hit on the head. That might have serious consequences for his
mental and cerebral health. He should be more careful. The last episode is a
Christmas special in a way that is a real gem of empathy and dedication.
Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU
# posted by Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU @ 1:41 PM 
