A high time for all at the party – well, not quite all, Ed is at home under curfew and is very low.

Radio Times: Ambridge gets into the party mood.

Characters: Clarrie, Ed, Emma, Fallon, Hayley, Roy, William

• Roy and Hayley are clearing out the spare bedroom at Willow Farm and it clearly irks Hayley that they need to ask Betty before they throw things out, or indeed before they do anything.
• On the Green, Ed quizzes Fallon about the rumours fingering him as the horse slasher; the police obviously think it was him as he has been asked to prove his whereabouts on the nights of the earlier attacks. Emma arrives as Fallon leaves and wants to talk. She knows Ed is having a really hard time and she is sorry if tonight’s party makes it harder; she still cares for him a lot and hopes they can remain friends. Ed is not much cheered by knowing that Emma’s enjoyment of the party will be tempered by his enforced absence.
• Nightingale Farm is resounding to party music and the revellers admire Clarrie’s cake. Even Neil and Susan are attempting to dance, in spite of Neil’s reservations about the whole thing – that Emma is marrying a Grundy – and his intention not to stay long tonight so as not to bump into Eddie. Tomorrow Will and Emma must go to tell Marjorie all about it.
• In the quiet of Keeper’s Cottage, Ed is very morose. He doesn’t care any more; they can bang him up if they like. Before she sets off for the party, Clarrie does her best to persuade him that the probation officer didn’t think that prison would be the result.
• Roy pops the champagne cork and Hayley proposes a toast. Will declares his love in a way that Emma finds embarrassing, although she later concedes that what he said was lovely. Love you. Love you too.