Siobhán disappoints Tim by sticking to her travel plans but she feels that Brian is going cold on her.

Radio Times: Jennifer sees the doctor.

Characters: Brian, Jennifer, Kathy, Pat, Siobhán, Tim, Tony

• Why has Brian no appetite? Can it just be that he can’t get his delivery notes to match the invoices? Jenny is doing her mother hen bit and clucking, unnoticed, over his missing a meal and her own ‘acidy’ tummy, about which she saw Tim earlier. And that brings an anxious reaction from him – and not for the reason that their apparent debility might spoil the holiday either… However Jenny found Tim very short with her and thinks she must be over-reacting.
• Kathy is on the search for some interesting veg. for the Orangery from the farm shop and finds Pat willing but up to the eyes, or is it the elbows, down the drain. The men are too busy to do this kind of job says Pat, so Kathy thinks that having a man around the house can’t always be as much of an advantage as it should be. On that score Caroline has put her off the computer-dating route but she is about to give a party club, advertised in the Borchester Echo, a go. Even if it does sound a little expensive, she will meet a wide range of people.
• Tim wants Siobhán to cancel her trip to Hannover so that they can spend some time together, not arguing, but talking through the whole situation. Having admitted that the shock of it all has caused him to be angry, wrongly, with everyone else, Tim tries to stay calm when Siobhán says she can’t cancel at this late stage. He asks if it is not worth her making that effort, but Siobhán is adamant that she must go and suggests that a couple of days apart will give them a useful breathing space.
• Tony is able to provide an interesting selection of organic produce for Kathy and enlightens her about Eddie’s Plan A which has now become Plan B and involves wild rabbits and half a dozen ferrets – as his next-door neighbour she reacts rather predictably!
• So the first spell of cautious apartness has passed and Siobhán and Brian meet in a lay-by, presumably as she is on her way to the airport. They sound (quite realistically this time, unlike some recent examples… !!) pleased to see each other and start to make up for the two lost days… But Brian says that they must continue to cool it for the sake of Tim and Jenny’s feelings (a bit late to consider them now, isn’t it??) and Siobhán gets the impression that he is going cold on her. Soothes Brian, “Our feelings won’t change simply because we have a little time apart.” Watch this space!