Debbie is considering making a date with Kenton; Tom and David each have a different dilemma about approximately the same amount of money.

Radio Times: Phil is not happy.

Characters: David, Debbie, Heather, Phil, Roy, Ruth, Tom

• Heather is feeding the calves at Brookfield with baby Ben’s help. Debbie calls, expecting to find Ruth in the calf house, but is really after David. Ruth returns from the school run and teases Debbie about the stories she’s heard from Shula, of Debbie’s rescue by Kenton from a drunken night of debauchery – Debbie hadn’t realised that Alistair’s car was clamped in Borchester! That was the final straw and Kenton’s been given an ultimatum to leave the Stables (watch out, girl, if you’ve got a spare room in the cottage … !!!). Debbie light-heartedly leaps to Kenton’s defence – she’s going to give him a ring and go out with him again because he’s such great fun to be with! As David arrives, Ruth calls Kenton a liability and blithely tells Debbie, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you …”. David tells Debbie that there is a two-year contract going with Borchester Land to maintain the hedges – she should consider it, with her Estate experience, and it would help make more efficient use of farm machinery. Debbie seems sceptical, but David wants her to think about it carefully. He tells Ruth after she has gone, that anything to keep Debbie motivated to stay at Home Farm has got to be good – even her showing an interest in Kenton! On a more serious note, David is going to sound Phil out about Matt Crawford’s offer this morning. Ruth thinks Phil’s not exactly going to be overjoyed.
• Tom and Roy are sussing out the units at Sawyer’s Farm before looking at Borchester trading estate. Debbie is out and about sizing up the hedges idea and wishes them good luck with the plan.
• Jill seems to have forgotten that Heather was going for coffee – Phil explains that she’s so busy with Parish good works in the interregnum (as only Jill would be!). David arrives and Heather tactfully pops to the village shop. Phil is instantly against the idea of David selling Midsummer Meadow, not only for sentimental reasons but because Ruth and David are simply custodians of Brookfield for the next generation – they’d be breaking up the farm. But £66,000 would go a long way to helping their current financial dilemma, explains David. Phil wants them to think very carefully before making a decision – he and his father before him had dips and hard times and now it’s their turn. But these things go in cycles … and David’s grandfather loved that meadow …
• Tom and Roy discuss the possible premises they’ve seen over lunch. Roy is impressed with Tom’s business plan so far, and helps him with more precise figures. These show that a good profit from the enterprise seems likely, but Tom still needs his somewhat reluctant Mum and Dad to agree to borrow the money for him – and before his meeting with Mr Sutton next week.
• Ruth is finishing off some of Bert’s work – he’s skipped off for an early lunch to the cyber-café to e-mail his poems to Jennifer before Joe Grundy gets a look in! David tells her that Phil was devastated by the prospect of losing Midsummer Meadow – it’s going to be really difficult to make a decision.