Lilian announces her departure, Matt refuses to accompany her.

Radio Times: Matt gets a tough ultimatum.

Characters: Lilian, Matt, Pat, Susan, Tony

• Matt’s been trying to phone Lilian; she was AWOL when he woke. She returns from the travel agents with two tickets home. Depart Wednesday 06:55, arrive Birmingham Thursday morning, in time for the hearing. Matt says it’s a waste of money; he’s not going back to prison. Lilian feels she’s being offered a life sentence in Central America’s Meadow Rise. Matt thinks things will improve once they’ve a house and friends but Lilian wants family, not friends, and she won’t stay. Later, even the news that Russell thinks she’ll be questioned by police on her return doesn’t stir Matt. They both think they’ve made their choices.
• Susan handbags Pat at home. Complaints come thick and fast covering the parish council meeting, the builder’s visit, and Usha being on the committee, none of which she was told about despite being promised to be “kept in the loop”. Tony makes up a fault-report by Clarrie to allow Pat to end the tirade. Just as well as it was getting a bit nasty on Susan’s part. Tony’s annoyed to hear of Brian’s builder visiting; asking Brian to sort out her finances was the worse thing his mum’s ever done.