Josh makes a purchase and David is not pleased. Kenton makes a purchase and Jolene will not be pleased. Toby makes a business decision and David is not pleased.

Radio Times: Kenton makes an impulse buy, and Josh needs help to broker a deal.

Characters: David, Elizabeth, Josh, Kenton, Rex, Toby

• Arrogant Josh boasts to his father about his negotiating skills. He has bought a ride-on mower for Richard Thwaite and will make £600 from the deal. The only problem is that he needs David to pay up front. Meanwhile he leaves Rex to start slaughtering the geese on his own.
• As Kenton and Elizabeth drive off to look for a car for the twins’ birthday, Kenton bemoans the fact that he allowed himself to become involved in Lynda’s panto with its terrible and interminable script. His own car is being repaired at great cost and Jolene has forbidden him to look at other cars since they still have loans to repay. This fails to stop Kenton drooling over a sunset red 4×4.
• Toby turns up at Hollowtree and receives a less than friendly welcome. He wants to set up his still in a vacant building there, an idea firmly rejected by his brother. Toby points out that their lease does not specify the use to which they put Hollowtree, and that Toby is party to that lease. Rex has little power to oppose the plan. Since Josh has gone AWOL at their busiest time, Rex is forced to accept Toby’s help with slaughtering the geese. Josh then arrives, and gets wind of Toby’s plan.
• Kenton comments on Shula and Alistair’s improved relationship. It looks as though this Christmas should see all the Archers happy. He tries to probe into his sister’s burgeoning romance with Richard Locke, but gets nowhere. But he does buy the sunset red 4×4. When Kenton returns to The Bull to find Toby there, Toby claims to have ‘cracked’ the goose-egg-laying panto problem.
• Josh also returns home. He needs to collect the mower tomorrow, another day on which he was supposed to be helping Rex, and David is not happy with his son’s financial dealings. Such problems fade into insignificance when David hears about Toby’s plans for Hollowtree. “WHAT?” he bellows, as only David can.