Marjorie hears the worst.

Radio Times: Marjorie hears the worst.

Characters: Hayley, Marjorie, Mike, Neil, Pat, Tony

• Hayley’s driving an obviously nervous Mrs A into Borchester to, finally, meet her optician’s appointment. The outcome is serious but operable, she needs her GP to refer her for cateract removal, a process which could take almost a year, but which will restore a massive amount of sight.
• Neil’s helping Tony out with some of the heavy work that Tony’s back isn’t up to do, but cold and hard it might be, he’d still rather be doing that then be a rep for Borchester Mills.
• Ambridge’s prospective new GP has visited the surgery and has spoken to the staff who seem happier with the situation. He’s arriving from a practice in London – although he’s not been confirmed yet, it seems likely he’ll take it.
• Tommy is not happy and is still stomping around the farm. Hayley decides to try to talk Pat around – because Tommy’s not capable of being scraped off the ceiling. She points out that he – they – have done all the hard work, but then Helen swans back in and things get postponed on her say so. Hayley can see the branding issue and Pat can appreciate the feeling, so Hayley suggests a compromise, that they prepare a trial batch of 50lb to just take the testing that one step further on. Pat agrees to discuss this with Tony, but their decision at this point must be the final one and Tommy will have to accept it, whichever way they decide to go.