Ruth has a contraction whilst out with Usha; Siobhán confesses to an affair to Elizabeth

Radio Times: False alarm

Characters: Elizabeth, Greg, Helen, Jennifer, Ruth, Siobhán, Usha

• Helen is out on the clay pigeon range again but isnt doing quite as well as on Monday. She seems to have lost her touch and is grizzling about it. Greg is reassuring but points out that she’s not particularily strong. Offers a shoulder rub by way of consolation. No, she can’t go out tonight, she’s starting a new batch of cheese. Greg is mildly surprised….he thought Pat had said it would be best to wait till the first lot had matured. But Helen can’t wait. ( anyone sense a disaster in the offing?)
• Ruth and her bladder-dancing baby are feeling the pace on a shopping trip with Usha. They are in the bed department which is just as well when a contraction strikes. Usha starts to panic when David doesnt answer immediately…… However it’s a false alarm and later at home they make HIM promise to keep his phone switched on. He’s a little shaken and has made her lie on the sofa all afternoon.His close attention hasn’t extended to Ruth’s new hairdo though!
• On the green Jenny is dealing with the leftovers of the jumble sale and chatting to Lizzie and an almost monosyllabic Siobhán. Jenny is prattling on about her new project, ‘the ‘Ambridge Scrapbook’, making an unfortunate comment about incomers as she does so.Siobhán is rude in return but the elephant- hided Jenny doesn’t notice. The conversation turns to costumes for the Fancy dress ball. Lizzie might go as the Wicked Lady, to which Siobhán mutters ‘That should be me’ As Jenny departs, Lizzie rounds ‘ What IS the matter’. Siobhán dissolves in tears.
• In the dairy, for no apparent reason, Helen is showing Jenny the new set up ……Jenny would LOVE to make cheese. (where’s that leading?)
• Lizzie finally gets the sorry tale ‘ I’ve been having an affair’ When she digs deeper- for the ‘who’, though, she’ s met with a frosty’ Im not ready to talk about it’. Poor Siobhán (!), she just can’t understand why Tim’s not ready to forgive her…….of course it WAS only last Friday she told him, but it seems much longer. Lizzie responds that it would take much more time than that for her to forgive Nigel if he strayed. Siobhán isn’t mollified……she’s offered to move back into the marriage bed, but Tim’s having none of it! She intimates that it was physical attraction that pulled them together…..now it, or the lack of it, may be pushing them apart.