Lynda emerges triumphant from the panto and Lexi indulges in nostalgia

Radio Times: Lynda is on top form and there’s revelry at Honeysuckle Cottage

Characters: Eddie, Ian, Jazzer, Lexi, Lynda, Robert

• Robert finds Lynda telling her thespian troubles to Salieri and Constanza. She is suffering a crisis of confidence, feeling that the audience was not always in tune with her interpretation. Robert makes a brave effort to cheer his wife without actually commenting on her performance, and is saved by the arrival of an email containing Tristram Hawkshaw’s review. maybe it would be better not to read it so near to another performance, he suggests kindly.
• Eddie also has a copy of the review, and reads it to fellow members of the cast, who can barely believe what they are hearing, namely fulsome and over-written praise. Eddie quickly formulates a plan to cut Lynda down to size.
• Unable to tell Lynda what he really thinks, or indeed to sit through another performance, Robert takes refuge at The Bull with Lexi, Adam and Ian. As the time for the final curtain approaches, Robert weaves his way to the hall, leaving Adam and Ian to invite Lexi home for a Chinese takeaway with whiskey.
• On stage, other performers do their share of ad-libbing, though Lynda continues to create her role entirely to her own satisfaction. Afterwards she confronts them, accusing Harrison in particular of feeling threatened by her superior skills. She orders them not to repeat their actions tomorrow.
• Lexi talks of Christmas customs at home, and how sad she was not to be there with her girls, though she knew from the start that her job would have to come first. She misses Roy, who is still away, and muses briefly about motherhood. She can understand how uncertain Ian must feel.
• Robert praises his wife’s improvisation, managing not to let on that he was not actually there for the performance. Lynda’s confidence seems totally undamaged. She feels her triumph as Carabosse signals the start of a whole new exciting chapter in the life of Lynda Snell.