Matt Crawford, unschooled in the ways of the countryside, has declared war on weed.

Radio Times: Matt says “weed”.

Characters: Alice, Alistair, Fallon, George, Jennifer, Mike, Ruth

• Poor Jennifer, nobody seems very interested in her woes; she is on a guilt trip about Alice’s accident and only Ruth is on hand to hear it, a refugee from Bert’s incessant recitation of “The Ballad of Jethrow’s Teeth”. Alistair has come to check on the patient but assures her that Chandler just had a dislocation, not a break.
• George can hardly believe his eyes: Mike is in the river thinning out the water-crowfoot. Doesn’t he realise that the weed supports insects and provides a hiding place for the fish; Mike’s earlier coppicing work was to let in more light so that the weed would grow. He does know. He also knows that The Estate is paying him to clear the weed so that “that beggar” Matt Crawford can go fishing now! Does Brian know about this? He soon will.
• Alistair assures Alice that Chandler’s leg is just bruised; she has a bit of a shiner herself. Jennifer believes that joyriders caused the accident but since neither Debbie nor Alice can provide any description, the police have little to go on. Alice is not to be distracted by talk of model cars; she plans to pull out of the race, which is silly, and devote her time to Chandler. George arrives looking for Brian but is content to leave a message about the river.
• In The Bull, Fallon is polishing and cleaning as a holiday job. She cannot believe that Mike is the village strong-man. She reckons her mum can beat him at arm-wrestling after pulling all those pints. When Alistair joins them and the conversation turns to last night’s drama, she is very keen to get as much detail as possible. In fact her inquisitiveness suggests she knows something which ought to be reported to the police, though of course she denies this.