03/03/2026

Cheese rival Celia Sparrow calls at Bridge Farm, where Helen underplays the audit. As they tour the farm, Celia reveals the reason for her visit. Her musician brother Reuben is opening an organic farm in Little Croxley. Staggered, Helen hears that he’d like her to be Director of Operations in his dairy. It’s an exciting project and he’s offering an incredible salary, enough to move house if Helen wanted. Back at the dairy, Tracy is impressed by the job offer – she’s a huge fan of Reuben’s band Spuggy, and was gutted to miss their reunion tour. But when Helen reveals she doesn’t think she could leave Bridge Farm, Tracy is unconvinced– is she thinking with her head or her heart? Brian tries to reassure Miranda that Ruairi is fine – he’s just worried about Paul and his dying grandmother. This doesn’t ring true to Miranda, so Brian discloses Ruairi’s anguish over the Home Farm move, linked to his memories of Jenny and Siobhan. At Blossom Hill, Miranda gently coaxes Ruairi, who admits he’s struggling. She suggests planting trees at the house, in honour of his mother and step-mother. Ruairi’s about to open his heart when his phone rings and the moment is lost. Later, he tells Brian that he’d been at the point of telling Miranda about the attack on George. Appalled, Brian tells Ruairi he can never implicate Miranda in their mess. Brian agrees that the move isn’t right for Ruairi at the moment and he can stay at Blossom Hill, but warns him to stay away from Miranda.

Eddie surprises George, who’s sorting out old family photos at No 1 The Green. George awkwardly reveals he’s preparing a slideshow for Eddie’s 75th birthday. The memories make Eddie emotional, bringing home how close they’ve always been as a family, and how different things are now – what would Joe say if he were alive today? George insists it’s all been his fault. He regrets what he did to Ed, and what he said about Nic. He’d do anything to turn back the clock and be close again. Touched, Eddie can see he’s trying. He reckons they should put it behind them – after all, who knows how much time he’s got left?Arriving to measure up at Home Farm, Miranda is surprised to find Ruairi, who’s been for a run and found himself there. Sensing he’s not himself, Miranda tries to cheer him with the news that the exchange should be in a couple of weeks. He can come in and have a look as the estate agent should be there. With work as an excuse, Ruairi leaves. Miranda later shares her concerns with Brian, who insists he’s looking forward to the move. Calling in at Berrow Farm, Brian demands that Ruairi tells him what’s going on. Distressed, Ruairi admits he can’t entertain living at Home Farm. For him it represents Jenny and his early life, and would only emphasise how disappointed she’d be in him now. Brian tells Ruairi to pull himself together because they’re definitely moving in, before embracing him and assuring Ruairi that they’ll be alright.

Tom complains that he was too tired to do paperwork last night, with the twins being at such a livewire stage. Helen reminds him that she needs his veg box figures for tomorrow’s audit and considers how Bridge Farm could become more efficient. Affronted Tom pushes back – they are doing well and he has reservations about the need for an audit. As Pat and Helen enjoy a walk, Pat reminds her that Tom is in a different position in life to her, still having young children, and could be feeling threatened by Helen’s energy and enthusiasm for the business. Raising this with Tom, he at first blusters, but then admits to Helen that he does feel a little insecure and in fact it might do them good to have a thorough examination of the business. Things get steamy on Rex’s narrowboat when Alice arrives and offers to refasten his crooked shirt buttons. Later, they are interrupted by Adam, who wants to chat to Rex about potentially playing cricket for Darrington. With Alice hiding in the bedroom, flustered Rex badly covers what he’s been doing. Later, Rex and Alice are hoping no one will realise they are in The Bull on a date. Adam, seeing them, lets Rex know that he hasn’t got it in him to play for a rival team. He asks them if they’d be interested in another team sport – one the whole community could get behind. As they agree, Adam joins the dots – he teases them that it’s sweet they’re together and promises them discretion.

At The Bull Chris tells Hannah he’s looking forward to making the plant supports for her step-father, but generally he feels a bit old and pointless. Hannah sympathises, her career feels stuck too – what they both need is a good work challenge to get them going. David then outlines his idea for a farrier competition at the Borchester Show, which sounds great, but Chris doesn’t want to organise it. When David uses the word “challenge” Hannah leaps on this, after what they’d just been saying. Then Hannah’s bluff is called when she tries to shirk the challenge of helping with the staging. David puts both their names down and Chris reckons he’s worse than Lynda Snell! Helen’s woken by a call from Kirsty about the Open House viewing later. Kirsty realises Helen’s in bed with Finlay and rings off, before Finlay and Helen agree they’d like to stay there forever. But being together will only happen if one of them gives up the life they have. And that seems impossible, despite the overwhelming strength of feeling between them. They each have too many commitments in their lives to start anew. They decide to make the most of what little time they have left together and leave it at that. Helen then goes to view the house on The Green, telling Kirsty she has no regrets about last night or being unfaithful to Dane. She finally feels ready to move on with her life, for the first time since Rob died. She thinks moving into the house is a definite possibility.

Helen tells Kirsty they’ll be taking Tracy on at the Dairy despite Susan not being keen on working with her sister. Helen admits she’s thinking of taking Dane to meet Finlay later, if she meets him at all. Then Finlay calls and Helen agrees straight off to meet him at the pub where he’s staying, before telling Kirsty her brain went to mush. This is so not her! Later at the pub, Helen waits with Kirsty for Finlay. When he arrives Kirsty quickly disappears, with Helen only belatedly realising she’s gone. By the end of the evening Helen and Finlay finally admit their feelings for each other, before heading to his room together.Brian joins Rex at The Bull to discuss the rewilding walk, with Alice having told Rex she’s delayed. Brian then calls Alice, asking her to come and meet him. When Alice arrives Brian sends her to join Rex and Alice quickly susses that Brian is match-making. She asks him to never do it again as it’s embarrassing. Kirsty then turns up and sits with Rex, oblivious to Rex and Alice’s intended date. She tells them she’s just been a very reluctant gooseberry and needs some company. When Rex mentions the drive-in movie Kirsty is interested and Alice plays a trick on Rex, encouraging Kirsty to go with them, before admitting to Rex with glee that it’s payback for last week’s botched invitation to the Brewhouse. After the film Alice tells Rex about Brian’s match-making. Before an oblivious Kirsty joins them in Rex’s taxi, Rex and Alice admit that there is something between them.

Rex gives Brian a lift back to his car after it ran out of petrol, and stays with him to check Brian’s ok restarting it. Later, at the Rewilding, Brian’s impressed by the variety of wildflowers on one of the trails. He quizzes Rex about his life pre-Ambridge and why he went into farming, before suggesting they meet at The Bull tomorrow, when Rex can talk to Miranda about taking her walking group on a Rewilding trail.At the Dairy Susan is demonstrating the cheesemaking process to Tracy when Chelsea taps at the window. Tracy tells her she hasn’t had time to talk to Lilian yet, then on their break Chelsea fills Susan in on her dilemma – she’s got nowhere to put the horsebox if it can’t stay at the Stables! Chelsea implores Susan to let Tracy sort things out with Lilian, but Susan reckons Chelsea needs to do it herself if she’s a proper businesswoman. Tracy agrees, leaving Chelsea to it. Later, Tracy begs Susan to take her on at the Dairy for Chelsea’s sake, but also because she’s a good worker.At the Dower House Chelsea does her best to sway Lilian, who appears unmoved. Chelsea then walks to The Bull with Lilian, outlining her business plan in detail. Lilian’s impressed but still says no to keeping the horsebox at the Stables. However, Chelsea could keep it at the Dower House instead – there’s a spot in the corner behind the shrubbery. Stunned Chelsea tells Lilian she loves her, and Tracy exclaims to Lilian that she’s just made her the happiest mum in the world!

David approaches Lilian about the Stables participating in the Borchester Show, but then has to go and deal with a calving. Later though he bumps into Lilian again at the Shop and expounds on his idea for some kind of equestrian competition at the Show, to be run by the Stables. Susan suggests a farrier competition would be good too. David leaps on this, encouraging Lilian to get the Stables fully involved, before Lilian discerns Lynda’s influence at work. Lilian and Susan then outline the Snell modus operandi, before Lilian declines the offer. Susan then spills the beans about Chelsea working on the horsebox at the Stables and Lilian thinks she needs a word with Alice…Susan recounts to Chelsea, Jazzer and Tracy what happened at the Dairy yesterday with Kirsty. She wonders if Brad or Chelsea might be interested in helping, but it’s a “no” on both counts. Chelsea, Jazzer and Tracy then tell Susan about the mobile salon idea and how brilliant it’s going to be, before they go and start work on making the horsebox fit for purpose. Chelsea can’t help worrying how she’s going to pay for people like the electrician they’ll need, but Tracy has an idea and offers her services to Susan at the Dairy. Grateful Susan says she’ll suggest it to Helen. However, when Lilian catches Jazzer and Chelsea indulging in some childish horseplay she demands they remove the horsebox from the Stables immediately. Chelsea despairs, how did everything go this wrong this fast?

Chris and Hannah are on their way to a cricket team meeting Freddie’s called. There’s still bad feeling over last season’s controversial hidden payments to some players, even before Hannah and Chris discover Freddie’s forgotten this meeting and gone to another one instead. Assuming that’s the end for the cricket team Hannah then lays into Freddie’s poor judgement for suggesting George could rejoin the team. Hannah has no time for George and wants to tell Amber how misguided she is for sticking with him. Chris is more forgiving, but admits phoning Probation about George getting drunk on New Year’s Eve. Luckily George wasn’t recalled to prison and Hannah reckons Chris shouldn’t tell Emma what he did, rather than stir things up again.Akram tells Susan he’s happier working outside than in the Dairy, which is disappointing for Susan as working on a big, new cheese order is getting too much for Pat. Then Helen tells Susan Kirsty’s volunteered to do some shifts, starting immediately. Susan’s doubts about Kirsty are quickly confirmed though when she keeps getting things wrong. Kirsty then phones Akram to check on the procedure and is told off for bringing a phone in. Kirsty admits she’s worse than useless, saying the same again to Helen later. Kirsty then asks if Helen’s pursued a house for sale in the village, but Helen’s distracted by a text from Finlay, the crofter she met in Scotland. He’s coming to Borchester and wants to meet up. Helen knows she should say no, but… It's a yes then, reckons Kirsty.

Jazzer tells Chelsea she’ll be getting more money to help pay for the horsebox she wants to convert into a hairdressing salon. But Chelsea worries whether the owner will accept weekly payments, before proposing the idea to Alice, who says she’ll check with the owner.Rex drops in at the Stables and agrees to meet Alice at The Bull on Thursday for their date, but will look for somewhere to go onto. Rex returns later, helping Chelsea measure up the horsebox before Alice announces the owner has agreed to Chelsea’s payment plan. Delighted Chelsea goes to tell Tracy, while Rex suggests a drive-in movie on Thursday. Alice loves the idea, then potentially agrees to Chelsea leaving the horsebox at the Stables while it gets refurbished. David catches Lynda at the end of a Speedwatch session and swerves committing himself to volunteering on the speedgun until Autumn at the earliest. When Jazzer joins them David asks if they will volunteer to help with the Borchester Show, for which he’s chair of the committee. They both turn him down flat, with Lynda suggesting David work on his recruitment technique or the show is doomed to failure. Lynda elaborates that David should develop his big idea first, target the right people to progress it, then reel them in by outlining the benefits that would result, particularly for them. David is hugely grateful for the advice, but still can’t persuade Lynda to volunteer. She tells him she’s far too busy now – but might perhaps be available in the Autumn…

It’s early doors at the engagement party when Zach joins Stella, who makes him apologise to Josh for stirring things up over the pre-nup. Josh accepts he went too far having a go at Pip, but says he’s not staying for the party. Pip hopes Rex might meet a prospective girlfriend tonight, but Rex suggests that issue might already be settled, though it’s complicated and could still go badly wrong… Pip thinks Rex should go for it anyway. Pip and Josh then have an awkward exchange about Carol Tregorran’s tenancy at Glebe Cottage, before Josh apologises for taking out his feelings on Pip. He tells her he’s going to look for work on a farm overseas. Pip’s stunned and thinks David and Ruth will be devastated. Josh points out they’ve both worked abroad in the past, hoping they’ll understand. But it’s his life and he feels he’s got nothing to lose.Zach teases unamused Lynda about her Speedwatch activities, before she puts him in his place. Ruth makes a speech welcoming Stella into the family, raising a toast to the happy couple. Later, Pip and Stella tell Zach that Josh is leaving. Stella feels Zach is partly to blame for stirring things up, but unrepentant Zach feels it could be good for Josh, even if he hasn’t completely made up with Pip.Rex and Alice have an awkward dance together, Pip and Stella a better one, agreeing to set a date for their wedding. Inspired by this Rex and Alice clear up their misunderstanding and agree to go on a date.