Poppy dies and pitches Eddie into a right blue funk.

Radio Times: Black armbands at Grange Farm.

Characters: Clarrie, Eddie, Helen, Joe, Kate, Tony

• Helen tries to convince Tony that, as everything’s on the up, he should make a real effort to celebrate his and Pat’s Silver Wedding Anniversary – he’s not feeling particularly imaginative, though. Not about that, nor about Christmas and the New Year. He would quite like a quiet family celebration but is concerned that Peggy, for all the right reasons, will try too hard – especially with New Year’s Eve being John’s birthday.
• Kate, at the dairy to pick up an order for shop, is still being the proper little ray of sunshine. Helen, though, is on the up alive with her success with Howard Friend and enthused by his stories of trying to get his business into Europe.
• Grange Farm turns another corner. Only things go from bad to worse. Clarrie returns home from working at the dairy to a flustered Joe. Eddie is trying to milk the cows having first hit the homemade apple brandy in a big way. Poppy, who’d been suffering from an abcess for a while, has died and with this little income stream dammed, Eddie just lost it. Clarrie is angry and some tense scenes portray real strain, she struggles to get him out of the milking parlour, struggling also to talk some sense into his sozzled brain. The farm needs strength and she’s not sure if she has enough on her own.