17/06/2024

The residents gather for news of a friend, and preparations begin for the summer fete.

Susan and Joy are filling shelves. They discuss Lynda being mysterious about who will be taking over from her to organise the Ambridge Fete. Joy is not keen on becoming her successor. Jazzer arrives to collect some beans and agrees. Joy says being part of the team effort is more her style. Jazzer suggests a cost of living fete with prizes that are actually useful. Later Joy tries to cheer up Susan who is rattled by Alice’s not guilty plea. Every time she thinks things are getting better they get worse. Joy saw them at the playground and they looked like a normal happy family. Later tired Susan yawns and confesses to Joy she’s not sleeping well over the situation with Alice. The only upside is that Martha has her home and Emma’s to fall back on. George and Eddie are getting Bartleby ready for his tour of the village when Meg Mellor calls to say she’s arrived in Ambridge. George asks if she can come early on Friday so he can take her through Bartleby’s likes and dislikes. She promises she will and George hangs up abruptly, growing upset at the thought. Susan, Joy and Jazzer come to say farewell to Bartleby. Eddie waxes lyrical about the pony’s new home but George is irritated at such talk. The Grundy’s finish Bartleby’s tour and Eddie reminds George that he’ll have to appear in court at Felpersham and lawyers will try to run rings around him. Eddie suggests using Bartleby’s money to buy more pigs. Furious, George calls Meg and says the deal’s off – she can’t have Bartleby!

Lily is at Grey Gables on the phone to Mrs Mellor who is buying Bartleby. She wants to park her horse box there. Oliver tells Lily that Roy is staying in Bulgaria. Lily says the hotel can’t run without him – at least it won’t be the same. Oliver will have to manage until a replacement can be found. Lily says she finishes her placement next week. Later Oliver is struggling with printing staff rotas. Lily comes to the rescue. He proposes she take a paid position as his assistant until she goes to university. She was looking forward to some time off but agrees to consider it. But first she insists he sign her assessment. Harrison has a quick word with Chris over coffee. Chris is too busy with Martha to go to nets. George turns up with Harrison’s veg box and reminds Chris about hoof trimming for Bartleby on Friday. They chat about Alice’s not guilty plea and George leaves in a hurry. Harrison admits he has been so angry since Friday. He asks Chris if they can have a chat. It’s awkward as Chris apologises about Fallon’s miscarriage. Harrison grows irritable about Alice’s not guilty plea and Chris would rather talk about anything else. George chats to a smartened-up Bartleby as Oliver and agrees to take their picture. They talk about what a wrench it will be when Bartleby leaves on Friday. Oliver says Mrs Mellor has already paid. Distracted by Gem, Bartleby isn’t co-operating for the picture. George hopes they are on better form for Bartleby’s farewell tour of the village tomorrow.

Neil brings Christopher some of Susan’s strawberry tart. Chris confesses weekends aren’t easy caring for Martha full time. Adam tells them that Alice pleaded not guilty at court. Both are astounded. And now Alice is not picking up calls or answering the door to visitors. Later, Martha is ready for bed after playing in the park with Alice, which seemed to do them both good. Chris tries to ask why she didn’t plead guilty but Alice shuts him down. Christopher is worried Alice could go to jail – he doesn’t want Martha to go through what he did when Susan was jailed. As George tries to get a perfect take for Bartleby’s last video, Eddie suggests making videos with Gem once he leaves, but George says no way, Bartleby’s a one off. George finally gets the perfect take, gives Bartleby a hug and asks Eddie to take their picture. Eddie has suggestions for the money from Bartleby’s sale but George says no to funding the tree surgery, a new van or a family holiday - the money has to be spent on something Great Granddad Joe would have liked. Adam visits Lilian who confirms Alice isn’t answering the door to her either. Everyone feels useless about the situation. Lilian blames herself for encouraging Alice to date Harry in the first place. Adam admits that even at the police station Alice sneaked off to drink a miniature in her bag. And he thinks there’s little chance of her changing her plea – she seemed so certain.

When Fallon wonders what’s arrived in the post for Harrison, he admits it’s a baby loss certificate. Fallon’s understanding, apologising for over-reacting to Harrison’s prayers with Alan. She accepts that the miscarriage was significant to Harrison, and he should be able to react in his own way. Harrison says he just needed to say goodbye to the possibility of a baby. They say they love each other, and Fallon confesses to going out and getting drunk with Kirsty last week, explaining how it helped her to wipe the slate clean. Harrison understands that it was Fallon’s way of dealing with it all, they both reacted in their own ways. When Fallon mentions Alice’s in court today, Harrison says he’s not going to get angry about her and will just let the justice system take its course. Adam touches base with Alice before the hearing. Alice confirms she hasn’t drunk, but it means she can’t stop thinking about what she did to everyone. Adam says she’s doing well considering Jakob’s slip up at The Stables yesterday, but it’s good Lilian explained they were just sounding out temporary cover.Later at the Magistrates Court, Adam’s astounded when Alice pleads not guilty. Even Alice isn’t sure what happened, but she just knows she wouldn’t have driven after drinking so much. She wouldn’t endanger people’s lives. Adam drives home the fact that now she’s made a prison sentence more likely. Alice realises the implications and admits she’s frightened. She needs to buy something to drink. When Adam says she can’t let this drag her under, Alice thinks otherwise.

When Alice turns up at The Stables, Lilian thanks her for dropping by, it can’t have been easy. She offers to go to the court hearing with Alice tomorrow, but Alice declines. Justin checks if Lilian’s told Alice about recent developments, while Lilian’s encouraging Alice to leave so that she doesn’t see Carlotta arriving for her interview. Lilian’s saved by Jakob appearing to discuss Duke’s emergency treatment and Alice is keen to see the horse. Later Justin reckons they should be honest with Alice, but Lilian thinks she’s still too fragile. Justin agrees to wait to see how things go with Carlotta.Alice thanks Jakob for covering for Alice when he discovered her drinking – he’s a good friend. But when Jakob tries to reciprocate, saying Alice is a good stables manager and her replacement will have big shoes to fill, Alice is shocked by the news.Fallon’s trying out Kirsty’s Bushcraft event at the Rewilding site. Fallon admits she nearly didn’t come because of how things are with Harrison. Her birthday was awful because she discovered he’d had a prayer meeting with Alan but hadn’t told her. Joy arrives and they start by making a shelter before learning how to make a fire. Chat turns to Roy and whether love is in the air again with Lexi. At the end Fallon and Joy have had a great time – it feels like they’ve been on holiday. It’s made Joy think of fresh start; things are good with Mick, but she could be more open with him. Fallon agrees – she really needs to sort things out with Harrison.

It’s Fallon’s birthday and she and Harrison look forward to their takeaway later. The atmosphere’s broken by a text from Alan to Harrison about the memorial prayers last week. Fallon’s furious but Harrison can’t understand why. They were private prayers with Alan. But Fallon thinks it’s another example of Harrison not respecting her feelings.Adam drives Alice to her GP appointment with Azra. In the car park Adam and Alice chat about Friday’s court hearing. Alice is terrified about the outcome and really needs a drink, but Adam’s reassuring. If Azra can prescribe something that helps Alice stop drinking, then maybe she could chat to Lilian tomorrow about her Stables job. But Alice doesn’t think she can face Lilian after all she’s done. Alice suddenly gets cold feet about seeing Azra, so Adam’s left to convince Azra to come to the car. If Alice can keep off alcohol, Azra will prescribe a short course of medication to reduce the effects of withdrawal. Alice agrees, but Azra warns it’s only a short-term fix.Mick’s delighted that Joy’s come to his rescue by ironing his work clothes. She’ll do his laundry once a week and he can use her bathroom as the motorhome’s so compact. In return Mick offers to do Joy’s garden. Later Mick can’t thank Joy enough for saving his job by helping with his appearance. To show his gratitude he takes her up on to the Grey Gable’s roof to watch the setting sun. Mick apologises about messing up over Rochelle. If Joy is ever ready to talk about it, he’ll be there to listen.

Joy wakes up in Mick’s motorhome and they chat about last night’s after-hours venture into the Grey Gables Spa. Joy hopes Oliver doesn’t check the CCTV as the spa is out of bounds at night. Unfortunately they’re interrupted by Oliver ringing - a guest’s ring has been stolen and he needs to review the CCTV footage. Mick needs to get to his office asap.At The Stables, Lilian’s shocked when Justin explains he’s interviewing Carlotta Mayfield. Lilian thought they were going to discreetly sound people out, not start a formal recruitment process. Justin clarifies that they don’t know if or when Alice will be in a fit state to return to work. In the meantime, Carlotta, or whoever they appoint, can be a stand-in temporary manager. Then if Alice doesn’t come back, someone’s already trained up.Jakob successfully carries out an emergency procedure on Oliver’s horse. Justin passes on the news to Oliver, but they’re interrupted by Mick who’s found the missing ring. Oliver criticises Mick’s rumpled appearance, reminding Mick that he’s still on probation.Later Oliver turns up at Mick’s motorhome explaining that he’s discovered that the Health Club CCTV has a blind spot and wants Mick to sort it. Afterwards Joy and Mick agree that they’ve had a narrow escape.Jakob let’s Lilian know that Duke is responding well to treatment and along with no new cases of Strangles, it looks like The Stables outbreak has been contained. But Jakob wonders whether with Alice off, Lilian might share the management workload. Lilian says he’s not the first to mention that.

Tony’s irritated when George is late for his farm shift. George says it’s because he couldn’t sleep last night and fudges that it’s because the family’s selling Bartleby. Whilst Tony is sympathetic, he needs George to be focused at work. Later he discovers George napping against a bale and is furious.At a GP appointment with Azra, Paul explains about feeling itchy recently and how he now has spots in an embarrassing place. He’s worried that Etienne’s open relationship may be the cause. He’s relieved when it turns out to be insect bites, but Azra advises that Paul and Etienne might need to revisit safe sex in light of the open relationship.Adam’s surprised when Alice appears unexpectedly at Bridge Farm when he thought she was still in London. She needs to go to Borchester Police Station to be formally charged and wants Adam to go with her. Alice is glad to be back from Ruairi’s, though there’s lots of people she wants to avoid. At the police station Adam checks whether Alice had a drink when she went to the toilet, and she’s forced to admit she did. Later Alice is charged with dangerous driving and driving while unfit through drink or drugs - the hearing’s on Friday. Alice is scared she’ll end up in prison. It makes her want to drink even more. Adam decides to make a GP appointment to see if Alice can be prescribed a short-term fix and Alice realising there’s no choice, agrees to it.

At the Tearoom, Paul’s surprised to see Fallon looking so well after her drunken night out last week. That is until Fallon explains that she spent most of yesterday in bed at Kirsty’s. But now she feels like a reset button has been pressed and is feeling much better about everything. When Fallon notices Paul looking a bit uncomfortable, he says he’s fine. But later when Kirsty asks him if he’s got fleas or something, he brushes it off as sunburn. Later, Fallon starts to get flashbacks from her night out – and Kirsty’s forced to remind her of rapping and being thrown out of the club. Although Fallon’s embarrassed, it was also just what she needed, and she now feels she’s drawn a bit of a line. And Harrison seems much happier in himself too. Fallon was dreading her birthday, but now she’s looking forward to it with Harrison.Justin mentions to Fallon that there’s been no further cases of Strangles at The Stables. Things are still fraught there though with Oliver’s horse still struggling. Justin’s worried about Lilian which is why he’s insisted she take a lunch break. When Lilian talks about how stressed she is, Justin broaches finding a replacement for Alice. Lilian’s defensive, pointing out that alcoholism is a disease. And anyway Alice didn’t do anything wrong, any horse can get Strangles. Justin concedes that they do at least need to look at the practicalities. He’ll compromise by sounding out a few potential replacements on a no obligation basis, just so they’re prepared for the worst. Lilian agrees as long as Justin’s discreet.