Clarrie needs to talk and Mike proves to be a good listener.

Radio Times: Clarrie gets a new perspective.

Characters: Clarrie, David, Hayley, Mike, Ruth

• Two more hens are dead! Hayley is getting desperate, so Mike offers to call on Will and borrow some traps.
• At Brookfield, the conversation is of the forthcoming wedding – and what to wear. Ruth and David decide that they both need new clothes, so a shopping trip together is planned.
• Mike demonstrates the traps for Hayley, although she is too squeamish to use bits of the dead chickens as bait. Clarrie calls in time to see her rush off to Brookfield. She is missing her friend Betty; she needs to talk; Mike offers to listen.
• Ruth has some of Pip’s dresses to pass on to Phoebe; it’s her birthday soon but Roy will be too busy, on the day, with the wedding, so they plan to go out later with Mike and Brenda. However, Ruth thinks Brenda will be helping Tom at The Royal.
• Mike does more than listen. From his own experience of coming to terms with Betty’s death, he suggests that Eddie doesn’t want to talk because it is too painful; somehow, keeping things to oneself makes them seem less real. Clarrie was upset that Eddie went to The Bull to watch football but Mike is able to tell her that he wasn’t watching the match – he was watching the crowd. He had confided in Mike. So he does care! Clarrie thinks Betty would be proud of Mike, the way he has listened to her. She’s welcome, any time.