Helen takes control.

Radio Times: Helen takes control.

Characters: Alistair, Helen, Kathy, Mike, Neil, Pat, Shula, Sid, Tony

• Helen’s preparing to shoulder the complete dairy burden when Pat appears, although the strain instantly tells and she breaks up again. Right at the moment that Mike’s in the yard trying to track Neil down to discuss issues pertaining to the market garden and the Pick Your Own.
• Shula’s been to St Peters School open day but Alistair is still vigourously opposed – he was a boarder and hated it. Shula’s keen on giving Daniel the best opportunities, but Alistair is making his position very clear.
• Sid and Alistair are already worried about the cricket team’s potential summer, what with William out until after his exams no scorer to replace Marjorie and Sean and Roy having defected to a Darrington rumoured to be very strong.
• Mike’s sitting in the corner of the Bull staring into his pint and a concerned Sid discovers that, having witnessed Pat’s breakdown this morning, Mike’s reliving his own breakdown of a few years back. As Sid points out, he got through it, so why shouldn’t Pat, but Mike thinks he’ll steer clear of Bridge Farm for a while nonetheless.
• Helen’s getting increasingly infuriated with her mother and the fact that Pat says she wants to be better but is still refusing to take the pills Dr Hathaway prescribed finally causes her to snap. She points out that Pat patently can’t cope without the anti-depressants and, opposing a view Tony had earlier expressed, point blank tells her to open the bottle and take her medication.