Ruth drops everything to rush to her mum’s bedside.

Radio Times: Ruth faces a crisis, and Christine feels insecure.

Characters: Christine, David, Ed, Harrison, Jill, Ruth

• It’s going to be a busy day at Brookfield: David and Ed will be haymaking, so Ruth will move the cows. Ed turns up with the story of his father’s antics at Grey Gables yesterday evening. Do they need any party food? Probably not, as Jill has organised a fine picnic lunch which they eat with much by talk of harvests past and the things they used to get up to. It’s probably best to draw a veil over the ‘unintended consequences’ of riding home on top of the hay wagon; it wouldn’t be allowed these days.
• Harrison advises Christine to take some simple security measures: visit more often, arrange for lights to come on. There have been other break-ins in Ambridge, maybe by the same culprits. Thieves have been known to re-visit the same house; Christine is unmoved by the prospect, since they have already taken everything she cares about. As she later explains to Jill, she is dreading her eventual return to Woodbine; she feels so insecure.
• At the end of the day, David stands Ed a well-earned pint in The Bull, mercifully with no sign of David’s childish elder brother. But their pleasure is cut short by a call from Ruth: her mum is in hospital with what sounds like a stroke. It is as much as David can do, when he returns home, to stop her from jumping in the car and driving through the night to Prudhoe; it would be much safer to try to get some sleep and then set off early tomorrow. David will take care of the farm and Open Farm Sunday too.