Peggy takes sides.

Radio Times: Peggy takes sides.

Characters: Clarrie, Eddie, Julia, Lizzie, Nigel, Peggy, Tony

• Julia has jumped whole-heartedly onto the Grandmother-train and is cossetting Lizzie, who’s still too happy with her condition to complain too much. Peggy comes round to offer her congratulations and Julia wants tips on how to be a good grandmother, although Peggy’s not feeling like the best person to ask, what with the way her children and grand-children are currently behaving toward each other.
• Eddie’s driving another new-looking forage harvester around and Clarrie is ready to skin him, until he tells her that he’s rented this one from Brookfield so that he can do Grange Farm’s silage, having broken the trial one while completing his contract work. He’s confident that there won’t be any adverse followups to that – it’s been a week with no word. He’s also in the final stages of preparing some cider vinegar to sell at the Borchester Farmers’ Market. Clarrie is also concerned with William – he’s got a whole clutch of GCSEs this week.
• Nigel’s prying as to his present, but Lizzie’s giving nothing away. Meanwhile, fresh on the heels of the news of the imminent grandchild, Julia’s received a favourable letter from a publisher! It’s glowing in its praise, but she doesn’t seem to be particularly keen to set about re-writing the text.
• Peggy drops round to Bridge Farm to drop off some washing which she’d taken away to do while Pat was away and had forgotten to return. Tony realises that in amongst it all is a pair of black overalls that, in all likelihood, Tommy will have been wearing on the night of the raid and this uncovers all sorts of mother-son differences. Peggy is on the side of Jennifer, that Tommy did wrong and should apologise as soon and as effusively as possible so as to reduce the rapidly widening rift in the family. Tony, though, is four-square behind his son and, in an unusually strong defence, agrees that Tommy might have done wrong but he won’t try to persuade him to apologise unless he wants to. Criminality is sometimes the only way and he’s his son and he’s not going to let him down.