Ruth is feeling queasy and agrees to seek advice. Helen insists that she doesn’t need any.

Radio Times: Retail therapy is not the answer.

Characters: David, Helen, Jill, Lilian, Ruth, Tony

• Tony is at Brookfield looking for the contractor who is going to do his combine harvesting; Ruth doesn’t know where he is and she seems rather off-form. Jill has another crisis: the guests at Rickyard cottage have now managed to bring down the sitting room curtains. Are they swinging from them? David is able to answer Tony’s enquiry, the combine driver has just turned up, but Tony cannot reassure David that Eddie will pay his debts; he simply will not accept the result of yesterday’s model car race.
• Lilian has been diverted from her quest for a new hat; she has a vegetable shopping list from Jennifer but, hardly knowing a courgette from a cucumber, she delegates the choice to Helen. She is more interested in the builders working across the road but Helen professes to have been too busy to notice. When Tony arrives she confides that she is convinced there is a bloke behind Helen’s behaviour.
• Phil having gone to the optician’s, David is pressed into repairing the curtain rail. The plaster has gone around the fixings, so new holes and plugs are needed. Ruth is helping but feels queasy again. They discuss the possible causes, with one exception, and she agrees that if she is not better tomorrow she will ring the surgery for an appointment.
• Back at Bridge farm, a chance remark from Tony leads Lilian to suspect that Jennifer has told him about the face-lift but she cannot press the point or she will give the game away herself. She declares her intention to have a quiet word with Helen, bringing her wordly experience to bear on her problems. When Helen arrives home she tries to carry out this mission, tempting Helen with a day shopping together, but Helen could not spare even half a day just now. Lilian knows there is a man involved and if Helen wants to share her troubles she is available; it is not good to bottle it. However, Helen doesn’t need to talk and she doesn’t need help.