Lynda rises to the challenge.

Radio Times: Will Lynda give up?

Characters: Chris, Eddie, Lynda, Neil, Peggy

• Chris and Peggy chat as they stroll round the boundary during a cricket match. Sid’s presence at the crease triggers discussion on the speed with which Kathy wants a divorce and whether Jolene will move into the Bull. They go on to discuss the flower and produce sale, which Jack is to judge, and they laugh at the petty rivalries the show always causes.
• As soon as Neil is bowled out, Eddie accosts him. Neil refuses Eddie’s pleas to park the caravan at Willow Farm, largely on the grounds that it would upset Mike and Betty. Eddie piles on the pressure by listing the other refusals he has had and musing on possible desperate measures such as using a field without a water supply off the by-pass or even going back to Meadow Rise, which would be sure to finish Joe off. Finally, Eddie reports that Frank Bannerman at Penny Hassett yesterday died of a heart attack at the age of 49, the same age as Eddie. Eddie is doing the milking for his widow…it’s the least you could do for a mate.
• Lynda arrives on the scene. She announces that Jack and George are to play Pooh-bah and Pish-tush. She reminds Eddie about laying the patio and he is evasive. He suggests that she might consider letting him park the caravan at Ambridge Hall. She refuses point blank. It then dawns on Eddie that there would be room at the stables.
• A pouring overflow and bike trouble delay Lynda’s arrival at the Mikado read-through, at which Larry Lovell’s presence is observed. While they are waiting for her, Chris tries to allay Peggy’s reservations about being in the schoolgirls’ chorus. Apart from the question of age, Peggy feels under obligation to help Marjorie with front of house.
• Lynda runs through the script, causing mirth and consternation by herself assuming a range of voices to read all the parts of the many characters for whom actors have not yet been found. It becomes something of a one-woman show. Neil says she sounds ridiculous but he apologises afterwards for laughing at her.
• Peggy tells Lynda she has decided to do front of house so will not be joining Ivy Horobin in the chorus. Lynda says Larry has told her that the Felpersham Light Opera Society (FLOS) are mounting a production of The Gondoliers on exactly the same dates as the Mikado. FLOS had had the cheek to suggest that Ambridge should cancel theirs and stick to doing what they do best: Panto. They clearly wanted to steal Ambridge’s cast to fill out their chorus. Lynda vows that she will not give way and redoubles her resolve to make the Mikado the finest production of G&S that Borsetshire has ever seen.