The Archers

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.

Writer: Keri Davies Director: Dave Payne Editor: Jeremy HoweTony Archer…. David Troughton Lilian Bellamy…. Sunny Ormonde Harrison Burns…. James Cartwright Alice Carter…. Hollie Chapman Justin Elliott…. Simon Williams Mick Fadmoor…. Martin Barrass George Grundy…. Angus Stobie Jakob Hakansson…. Paul Venables Joy Horville…. Jackie Lye Adam Macy…. Andrew Wincott Paul Mack…. Joshua Riley Azra Malik…. Yasmin Wilde Kirsty Miller…. Annabelle Dowler Fallon Rogers…. Joanna Van Kampen Oliver Sterling…. Michael Cochrane

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.

Alan and Harrison meet in the church for private prayers and meditation for Harrison to think about his loss. Before they start Alan checks that this time Fallon knows what he’s doing, but Harrison hasn’t told her because it always leads to a row. He wants these prayers to be unspoiled. Afterwards Harrison feels more at peace with everything, and Alan says he’ll remember both Harrison and Fallon in his prayers. But he reminds Harrison that he ought to let Fallon know what he was doing and why.Fallon’s out on the town with Kirsty, celebrating her birthday early. She’s told Harrison that she’s staying at Kirsty’s and watching a film. Fallon just wants a night away from all the recent angst with Harrison. They agree not to talk about anything work or man-related. As the evening goes on Fallon gets tipsy and tells Kirsty she bumped into Lily, Paul and Josh in the bar. Paul’s there trying to take his mind off his relationship troubles with Etienne. Fallon’s agreed to go on to a club with them afterwards, commenting that it’s good to have mates – she’s glad she’s got Kirsty. As the evening progresses Fallon gets drunker, but Kirsty stays with her. When Fallon opens up about how she feels that people are trying to control her personal life, Kirsty counsels that sometimes it’s not about control. There are people out there who love her. Fallon adds that there’s also fun out there as well as worries, so she’s going to dance the night away!

Stella can’t get over yesterday’s cyber-attack – she should’ve been prepared, but Pip thinks Stella shouldn’t blame herself and anyway Stella may not have been responsible. When Stella starts catastrophising, Pip checks whether everything’s been saved on to the cloud and Stella confirms it has. So nothing’s been lost. Later they discover that it was Brian’s fault – he’d clicked on a link and let the virus in. Stella praises Pip for dealing with it all so calmly, when she’d fallen to pieces.Lily and Josh check in with Paul about his relationship with Etienne. Paul’s very unhappy, particularly when Josh let’s slip that he thinks Etienne is dull and then Lily confirms it. They wonder if Paul might be better off without Etienne, especially as it sounds like he wants to cheat on Paul. Paul’s not sure if he wants to end the relationship yet, but he does want to take Lily and Josh out to thank them for being true mates.The Grundys discuss what they should do about Bartleby – Meg needs to know whether they’re willing to sell him by the end of the day. But when they share what they think, they all have opposing views. Later they ask for Oliver’s help, and he suggests holding a secret ballot with family members who can text their votes to him. As there’s an even number of voters, Oliver will have the casting vote if there’s a draw. In the end Oliver declares that selling Bartleby has won by a single vote.

Stella asks for Pip’s opinion on a sustainability paper she’s writing for Borchester Land. Stella agrees when Pip suggests commissioning an ecological survey of all the BL land. But as Stella’s about to add that to her document, the computer starts to crash. Pip realises it’s a cyber-attack, telling Stella to shut it down immediately.Kirsty catches up with Fallon to ask what she wants to do for her birthday next week. Fallon says truthfully she’d just like to spend it with Harrison. She’s missed being close with him. They’re interrupted by Alan who mentions that he’s on his way to see Harrison about the order of service. Fallon knows nothing about it and is upset when she realises it’s a service for the loss of unborn babies. Alan’s apologetic, realising Harrison didn’t tell Fallon, and makes a quick exit leaving upset Fallon to wonder how Harrison could do this to her.Furious Fallon confronts Harrison about organising the service behind her back. He tries to explain that he and Alan were only looking at it as a possibility. He didn’t mention it because he wasn’t sure how Fallon would react. Fallon feels betrayed. Harrison has really tried but he can’t turn his feelings off. Harrison goes and Fallon tells Kirsty she’s changed her mind - she wants to go out and celebrate her birthday with Kirsty before next week.Alan counsels Harrison, saying he needs to acknowledge his own grief. Perhaps instead of a service, Harrison and Alan could have a private time of prayer. But Harrison needs to tell Fallon this time.