Shoestring is a British detective fiction drama series, set in an unnamed city in the West of England and filmed in Bristol, featuring the down-at-heel private detective Eddie Shoestring (Trevor Eve), who presents his own show on Radio West, a local radio station.

The first series was originally scheduled to be released on DVD in its entirety by DD Home Entertainment in 2005, but the idea was abandoned because of the high cost of music rights licensing.

[3] His landlady, barrister Erica Bayliss, arranges for him to investigate a potential scandal involving an entertainer who works for the local Radio West.

[4] After sorting the matter out, Shoestring visits Radio West to brief his client who has just chaired an unsuccessful planning meeting to come up with new programme ideas.

Inspired by a sketch of herself made by Shoestring, Radio West's receptionist Sonia proposes that he be hired as the station's "private ear"[5] to present a weekly broadcast entitled 'The Private Ear of Eddie Shoestring', in which members of the public are offered his services in order to investigate cases affecting them, such as disappearances or the unsolved deaths of loved ones.

The building in Welsh Back used to portray the Radio West premises was owned by the GPO at the time, and is now a block of flats, Riverside House.