Luke seeks help to come in from the cold and Pip seeks help to escape Phil’s strict piano discipline.

Radio Times: Alan answers a desperate call.

Characters: Alan, Amy, David, Luke, Oliver, Phil, Ruth

• It’s a significant day for Ruth and David, their 15^th Wedding Anniversary, so Ruth has booked a table at The Bull. Alan is there too, but dashing off to Borchester in answer to a call from the boy Luke. Oliver is sceptical but Ruth observes that he would probably not leave well alone himself, judging by the way he has helped Ed.
• Alan finds Luke looking, if anything, even worse than on Friday but then he has been sleeping rough in a park. He had been to Ambridge on holiday before his parents split, so he had made for a place where he remembered being happy. Alan suggests going to see whether social services can fix up some temporary accommodation.
• David and Ruth are decorating the house for Christmas but are interrupted by a very uptight Pip who has been practising piano under Phil’s watchful eye but has had enough of playing the same bit over and over.
• Luke has been given a place in a hostel, not perfect but it will be warm. Alan must go, to meet Amy, but not before he has satisfied Luke’s curiosity about his family.
• Over dinner, Ruth expresses her concern that they are pushing Pip too hard and should perhaps give up on the Cathedral School; what’s the point if it is making a chore of things that should be fun.
• Amy is not impressed that her father has answered Luke’s call; she thinks he is being taken as a soft touch. The people at the hostel will put Luke in the right direction; they have more experience than her father in these things. She is more concerned to get his approval for a sleep-over at Home Farm.