David offers a listening ear to Alistair.

Radio Times: David has some words of advice.

Characters: Alan, Alistair, Caroline, David, Jill, Shula

• Tomorrow Alan is planning a vigil, by himself, outside the church. He will sit there, whatever the weather, with banners made by Amy and Alice, giving out leaflets and collecting money for the homeless shelter in Borchester. When he tells Jill, she thinks he is mad.
• Caroline has been helping with riding classes for the disabled; they really enjoy it. Shula has to tell her that she has not made much progress sorting things out with Alistair; he insists he can handle it himself and does not welcome her intervention. She is struggling to understand why he did it. Tomorrow Caroline is holding interviews for a new chef at Grey Gables; Ian has put in a last minute application.
• Sid is drumming up support for his Valentine Day events but Alistair has to admit to David that he and Shula are unlikely to take part. Is there a problem? Does David really want to know?
• Shula has had a call from Elizabeth (Kenton must have blabbed – why did she tell him?), sympathetic but rubbing it in nevertheless. Her mother advises to ignore it; maybe Alistair will want to talk about when the dust has settled.
• Alistair’s account of the state of things does no favours to Shula and when David protests that he is going too far, he is accused of taking his sister’s side. He is not taking sides and they are mates; he knows the feeling, from his badger-shooting experience, of the world being against him. Alistair does not know how to make it right: telling her he was stupid (she knows!), that he is sorry and paying back the debts would be a start. What on earth made him think it was worth mixing with the likes af Matt Crawford. He knows has got to prove to Shula that he is not going to mess up like this again.