Charles Catchpole on the private side of a top TV private eye
(Daily Mail, 4 October 1980)
In the cocktail bar of a Devon
hotel an elderly lady with a refined accent was telling anyone who would listen
about her encounter with Mr Shoestring.
“Such a charming young man,” she fluted. “Do you know he’s the first person I’ve asked
for his autograph since Tom Mix”.
On his bar stool, Trevor Eve rocked with laughter. It was just the kind of quirky, unexpected
comment that would have delighted Eddie Shoestring, the unconventional private
detective whose scruffy clothes, shaggy hairstyle and off-centre view of life
have made him the unlikeliest popular hero on television.
The success of Shoestring – the first series last autumn
topped the ratings with record figures – surprised even the BBC.
Admittedly the ITV strike helped, but the second series,
which starts tomorrow night, will clearly confirm Eve’s position as the most
promising young actor in British showbusiness.
Already there is talk of a third series. Meanwhile, Eve has signed to bring the
eccentric Eddie to the big screen in a £2 million movie for Robert Stigwood.
The future for a man who, only a few years ago, was a
trainee architect looks very bright.
Yet the 29-year-old Eve seems curiously unexcited by it all.
“I do wish people would realise that I am NOT Eddie
Shoestring,” he says grumpily. “I am a
trained stage actor, and I like to think I could move into light comedy or back
to the stage.
“I could shave off this moustache, cut my hair and no one
would recognise me. But journalists have
started calling me Trevor ‘Shoestring’ Eve.
It really annoys me. Alan Alda
was in MASH for nine years, but when he does a movie no one calls him Alan
‘MASH’ Alda.”
So why is he talking about a third series only a matter of
weeks after declaring that he would never play the part again?
His sombre features break into a schoolboyish grin. “I just can’t make my mind up! I change from day to day, depending on my
mood at the time.”
Eve is almost as enigmatic as Eddie. He is serious and thoughtful, yet given to
sudden bursts of hilarity. He
delightedly signs autographs for everyone, but hates ‘the star routine’ and
when dragooned into attending publicity junkets, turns up late and unwillingly.
He has a reputation for being ‘difficult’ with
journalists. Yet during a three-hour
interview, at the end of a long and arduous day on location, he was amusing and
polite and didn’t duck a single question.
He doesn’t like about his private life – he is married to
actress Sharon Maugham and says it is irrelevant to his work. But he admits to being an avid reader of the
‘tell all’ interviews given by other actors.
“I’m a strange cross between an actor and a fan,” he says.
“I’m not conscious of being difficult with journalists or
anyone else. But I’m a fairly private
sort of person, and I just can’t be outgoing all the time, it’s not me. I try to be polite and helpful, but when
people get things wrong, I think “why bother?”
“The other day at a Press conference, someone asked me about
my marriage to Pamela Stephenson. I just
walked away. I knew the names of the
reporters and what papers they worked for, so why should I bother with someone
who apparently thinks I am Nicholas Ball (TV’s other private eye, Hazell, who
is married to Ms Stephenson).
“I just can’t put on the act to please other people. I know there is this argument that you owe
something to the public who have put you where you are, which actually, I agree
with.”
He cackles uproariously, “I really am a mass of
contradictions, aren’t I?”
He cannot explain the phenomenal popularity of Shoestring.
“I don’t believe in analysis. I’m just happy that it seems to work. But I think Eddie appeals because he has an
open minded questioning approach to everything.
He won’t pre-judge people.
Introduce him to a man who robs banks, and Eddie won’t automatically
assume he is a monster.
“Also, he has a certain vulnerability. He’s not the kind of cool, confident hero who
walks into a situation and everyone knows he can cope. With Eddie, you are never sure if he will
cope. In fact, it’s most likely that he
won’t. I think people can identify with
that.
“Then there’s his disturbed background. He had a breakdown, was in a mental hospital,
and that gives his behaviour a dangerous edge.
You are never sure if he’ll crack up again.
“Don’t ask me if I am anything like him, because I am most
definitely not. But I can identify with
him.”
No comments:
Post a Comment