The much-loved appearance of Toyah in Shoestring, one of her earliest acting screen roles is made available on DVD this October by the Network label.
Trevor Eve stars as radio “Private Ear” Eddie Shoestring in the massively successful BBC series which is released in its entirety as a new 6-disc DVD set on 16 October 2017.
The episode Find The Lady stars Toyah acting as the fictional punk rock singer Toola who performs Toyah music with her real life and at the time. Three songs – Neon Womb, Waiting, Danced – are included in the episode in specially recorded versions featuring Joel Bogen, Peter Bush and Charlie Francis. The studio version of Victims of The Riddle (Vivisection) is also used as incidental music within a scene in the episode. The original versions of the band-performed songs all appeared on the 1979 EP Sheep Farming In Barnet.
Created by Robert Banks Stewart (who would subsequently invent another long running drama series Bergerac), Shoestring stars Michael Medwin as Eddie’s long-suffering boss, Liz Crowther as station receptionist Sonia and Doran Godwin as Eddie’s landlady, on-off lover and occasional assistant Erica. The complete series set also features appearance from Diana Dors, Harry H. Corbett, Geraldine James, Christopher Biggins, Toyah WilLcox, Lynda Bellingham and Celia Imrie.
Following poison phone-ins and threats to a disc jockey, local station Radio West hire private investigator Eddie Shoestring. He discovers it may be a longer-running job than he first thought as he’s taken on to present a weekly broadcast, ‘The Private Ear of Eddie Shoestring’, offering his expertise to the local public.
Also included is a brand new book on the making of the series by archive television historian Andrew Pixley, with contributions from original cast and crew members.