Ed offers some help. Sam offers some support.

Radio Times: Ruth finds a supportive ear.

Characters: Ed, Kirsty, Oliver, Phil, Ruth, Sam

• The end of the school holidays finds Ruth a bit frayed round the edges. Josh and Ben have a fight, Ruth still hasn’t sewn the name tapes in their clothes, and then there’s the spectre of the dinner party hanging over her. She pours all this out to Sam, who’s curious about Sophie, but appalled at David’s insensitivity in asking Sophie to dinner. He suggests cooking some of their beef.
• Oliver is surprised but pleased when Ed turns up. He offers to help with a cow that won’t go into the bale, and, not for the first time, Oliver recognises Ed’s natural affinity with livestock. Ed’s happy to help further, but is put out when he hears that Oliver has taken Neil on, and that Jazzer is going to be doing the milk round 3 days a week. Ed says, ruefully, that he can see that Oliver needs reliable staff, and goes home.
• At the Bull, Phil asks Kirsty’s advice about his green cake, and she suggests hemp flour to add green colour. Phil’s not sure whether she’s sending him up or not, especially when she tells him to ask Helen for his ‘stash of hemp’. Oliver arrives, and is treated to a tedious account of the current state of the stained glass at St Stephen’s.
• After his drink, Phil calls at Brookfield and adds to Ruth’s feelings of insecurity by launching into reminiscences of Sophie’s time at Brookfield. He fails completely to pick up on Ruth’s tight-lipped response.
• Sam comes to the Bull, where Kirsty tells him how concerned she is at Helen’s lack of social life. Sam’s attention is far away, though; all he can think about is Ruth, and he’s not listening to a word Kirsty says.