05/09/2025

There's a surprise for the cricket team and Brad goes too far

WRITER: Katie Hims DIRECTOR: Pip Swallow EDITOR: Jeremy HoweBrian Aldridge.... Charles Collingwood David Archer.... Timothy Bentinck Pip Archer.... Daisy Badger Ruth Archer.... Felicity Finch Tom Archer.... William Troughton Lilian Bellamy.... Sunny Ormonde Rex Fairbrother.... Nick Barber Martyn Gibson.... Jon Glover Amber Gordon.... Charlotte Jordan Chelsea Horrobin.... Madeleine Leslay Adam Macy.... Andrew Wincott Kate Madikane.... Perdita Avery Zainab Malik.... Priyasasha Kumari Stella Pryor.... Lucy Speed Lynda Snell.... Carole Boyd Oliver Sterling.... Michael Cochrane Lawrence.... Rupert Vansittart

As Stella rolls up her sleeves for another day at Brookfield, David mentions a job he’s seen advertised that might be a good fit for her. Stella admits she saw it but dismissed it as too much of an executive role. She’s more farm than strategy. David argues she has all the experience and ideas they need – she should apply. She has nothing to lose. Stella agrees to give it some thought. Later grateful Pip thanks her dad for talking Stella round – she’s filling in the application right now. Pip loves how her parents have accepted Stella into the family and are open to her ideas.Against her better judgement Chelsea’s returned to the golf club with keen Zainab. She’s worried that Lynda’s sent the email about Lawrence – what if they see him? Zainab reassures her; there’s nothing they can do about it anyway. Martyn arrives and sense something’s wrong, so they explain about the blackmail threat. He offers to meet them later to discuss it further. Chelsea unwittingly divulges to Martyn that Justin’s buying more land. Over lunch Martyn admits to finding Lawrence’s behaviour bizarre. Right on cue Lawrence appears. He protests that Chelsea and Zainab are turning Ambridge against him, and Martyn’s accusation of harassment just proves how he’s also been taken in by them. After unacceptable insult towards Zainab, Martyn demands Lawrence apologises, but Lawrence compounds the situation and Zainab throws her drink over him in response. She instantly regrets it but Chelsea and Martyn think she was brave. Zainab just feels she’s made it all worse.

Bored Stella gets stuck into the Brookfield milking with Pip. Later she suggests an overseeding scheme for the pasture. David’s non-committal, telling Ruth later that he didn’t want to shoot Stella down at the time because Pip was clearly hanging on her every word adoringly – but some of her suggestions weren’t appropriate for Brookfield. Ruth agrees they don’t really need any extra voices when it comes to the farm. David reckons Stella’s bound to get a job soon; she needs to earn a living. He admits it would annoy him if she was hanging around Brookfield all the time.Chelsea’s alarmed to hear from Lilian that Lynda’s being blackmailed by Lawrence. She doesn’t want Lynda to send the email to the Golf Association now, and she’s never going back to the golf club. Lilian points out that’s just what Lawrence wants, but Chelsea’s fine with that if it means he’ll leave Lynda alone. Lilian’s distracted by a message from Justin saying he wants to buy more land.Amber tells Chelsea she thinks Emma over-reacted about George’s help with locating Markie. George can take care of himself – it’s one of the things she loves about him. Chelsea invites Amber to her birthday celebration next week, but when Amber hears some old school friends will be there, she declines. Instead she takes Chelsea for a drink at the Bull. Chelsea questions Amber’s decision to have her teeth done, but Amber defends it. She wants to do it for herself, and her brand. If she’s fine with it, Chelsea should be too.

Lilian confides to Lynda that the current tension between Justin and Brian is making her feel uncomfortable and embarrassed; sometimes Justin seems to forget that she and Brian are related by marriage. Lynda in turn has an awkward situation of her own. Lawrence’s threat to expose her over the cricket payments is troubling her. She doesn’t want to give in to blackmail, but she’s hesitant to report his behaviour to the Golf Association. She preferred it when she had the moral high ground. Lilian counters she still has this, over a racist misogynist like Lawrence. Brian makes the radical suggestion to Adam of selling the no till seed drill; they don’t have the contracts to justify owning it. Adam thinks this is shortsighted panic thinking. Later as Kate clears some of her things in readiness for moving out, she and Brian admit they’ll miss one another. Kate observes that Brian looks stressed. He confesses he’s unable to see an obvious solution to the farm’s current economic situation. He can’t fault Adam, who’s being fantastic and patient with him – it’s Justin who’s to blame. Kate tells Adam she wishes she could help. He and Brian clearly need more support. Adam notes that farming isn’t really Kate’s thing, and there’s no-one else to ask, so they haven’t got much choice.

Brian suggests they skip servicing the maize harvester this year to save money. Adam sees it as a false economy – if it breaks down it will be costly to repair. Brian maintains he currently has the final say in Home Farm business. Adam concedes the point. Later he tells Tom he’s made a decision; rather than keep messing Bridge Farm around he’d like to hand in his notice. Tom understands – Adam’s been biding his time and now he has another shot at the running of Home Farm he should take it. Adam protests he’s loved working at Bridge Farm, but they agree it’s time for him to move on. Brian’s on the cusp of advertising for another farm manager when Adam updates him with the news. He loves Home Farm; it’s where his heart is. Brian thinks this is brilliant.Lawrence compliments Tom on his game yesterday. He asks how much he gets paid for playing. Tom assures him he doesn’t get paid and neither does anyone else. It would be against the ethos of the team. As Chelsea serves Lawrence his lunch, he insists he’s tried to apologise to her and Zainab for his recent comments. He hints that if the complaint to the golf association goes ahead he might be forced to take action. Rattled Chelsea reports this to Lynda, who tells her not to worry. Lawrence presses Rex on a decision about payment, and Rex declines. Lawrence announces to Lynda that he knows her secret, and if she reports his comments he’ll tell the whole Ambridge team.

Tom breaks the news to Lynda that Henry can’t play cricket today. He’s struggling with the fact that the Borchester Fourths player he accidentally injured last week has two broken fingers. Adam too is unavailable. Lynda appeals to Adam – they currently don’t have a full team. But Adam’s busy at Home Farm and can’t be moved. With Chris out for six Lynda’s in despair, until she spots Adam, who’s relented and turns up to play after all. Lynda’s cheered; she loves this team. Tom promises if Adam can score fifty he’ll get him released to work at Home Farm again tomorrow. However despite a decent fight, Ambridge still lose. Rex has Lawrence in his taxi, who introduces himself before engaging Rex in cricket conversation. Rex admits he misses playing. Lawrence offers to pay him to play for Roserran-in-the-Vale. This is something they could offer that Ambridge doesn’t, isn’t it? Rex declines to comment. Later Lawrence taunts Lynda, alluding to the interesting conversation he’s had with Rex. He asks unnerved Lynda why she didn’t just offer Rex a fee to keep him. Lynda brushes him off and turns her attention back to the match at hand. Undeterred, Lawrence commiserates with her over Ambridge’s loss. Lynda asserts the team are in it for the love of the game. When he questions her coldness, she calls him out for his recent treatment of Chelsea. He dismisses it all as snowflakery. Even when Lynda declares she’s contacting Borsetshire Golf Association Lawrence insists he just doesn’t understand. And that, retorts Lynda, is the problem.

Fallon seeks Emma out at the Tearoom to let her know that Markie and his accomplice have been arrested. When Emma asks whether the police said it was because of George, Fallon admits that they’d had a tip off about Markie’s location. But Fallon reckons Emma can stop worrying now they’ve been arrested. Incredulous Emma points out that Markie and his accomplice are in prison and that’s where George is too. And there’s nothing anyone can do to help the situation. Fallon apologises and shares that Kenton was moved by his phone conversation with George. It sounds like George has done some growing up.Pat’s surprised that it’s mid-afternoon and Adam hasn’t been called back to help out at Home Farm yet. When Adam wonders why nothing seems to be happening with the Peggy holiday plan, Pat reckons it’s because no-one can agree about where to go. Adam’s phone rings and Pat knows it’s Brian even when Adam denies it. Pat warns Adam that he’d better not head over to Home Farm – she’s really fed up with the situation. Later Pat tells Adam that Tom saw Stella in the pub last night. She mentioned Brian’s letter and found it bizarre when she’s already made it clear to Brian that she never wants to go back to work at Home Farm. When Adam lets slip that Brian’s at the Tearoom now angry Pat storms over there to ask what he’s playing at. Adam now works for Bridge Farm – so Brian needs to let him get on with his job.

Lynda and Robert are in Ambridge Hall garden where they share how much they hate being at odds with one another; they’re each other’s favourite person. Chelsea turns up to do Lynda’s hair and tells her all about the run in she and Zainab had with Lawrence at the Golf Club last week. Lynda points out he was really awful with Khalil a few months ago and describes him as a misogynist and a racist. Robert offers to go and talk to Lawrence to help Chelsea and Zainab, but Lynda has another idea. She’s going to get in touch with the Borsetshire Golf Association. The police have checked in with Kenton and advised him to continue being vigilant while they’re still looking for the perpetrators. They have so much evidence now that he and Jolene probably won’t need to testify, if and when it goes to court.Later, angry Emma turns up at The Bull. Amber’s told her about George’s offer to help catch the person who’s been harassing Kenton and Jolene. She can’t believe it’s true and that they’re throwing George to the wolves. Kenton tries to calm her down saying that the offer came from George who’s trying to make amends. It could be a good thing for George. Jolene appears wondering what all the noise is about. She admits they didn’t really think about running it by Emma first, they just wanted Markie to be caught. But Emma counters that they’ve put George up against a man who intimidated them. How will George be safe now?

Adam helps Brian out at the Home Farm office. He tells Brian that he’s just been in touch with some people about potential contracts for autumn drilling, so they might hear something positive back soon. When Adam says he needs to head back to Bridge Farm, Brian lists all the things that need doing that Stella was across and Adam feels compelled to stay a little longer. They’re interrupted by Pat ringing wondering where Adam is. He’s supposed to be in the Dairy with Susan. Pat gives Adam ten minutes to get there. Later Brian admits to Adam that he’s written Stella a heartfelt letter of apology. She should receive it by post tomorrow.Jolene wonders whether George offering to help track down Markie is a trap. What if George is being blackmailed? But Kenton reckons they should trust George and anyway it’s too good an offer to miss. When George rings he wants to ask Kenton something first – does Fallon still hate him, because he feels haunted by the whole thing. Kenton thinks Fallon doesn’t hate him, but obviously George isn’t her favourite person. George then explains how one of the inmate’s dads hates Markie and would love to see him and any accomplices banged up. Kenton shares what he remembers, and George promises to do what he can. Afterwards Jolene wonders if George might be at risk by getting involved. But Kenton thinks the main things is if George succeeds in helping to track down Markie and his accomplice.