The Village Shop gets Community Asset status; Lynda is outmanoeuvred.

Radio Times: Lynda is put on the spot, and there is news to hold up rehearsal.

Characters: Elizabeth, Jennifer, Kirsty, Lilian, Neil, Susan

• Good news! Jim has phoned to say that the Village Shop has been granted Community Asset status. That would put a spanner in Hazel Woolley’s works, if she hadn’t already backed down. Neil immediately tells Susan, who can’t wait to tell Lynda at this evening’s rehearsal. In fact she keeps everybody else waiting while she does so. And she can’t resist a bit of schadenfreude over the Bridge Farm shop: she overheard Rob and Tony having a ‘to do’ yesterday.
• Outside the rehearsal room there’s time to catch up on other news: Adam and Ian’s wedding on 14 December; Phoebe has passed her driving theory test and is swotting hard for Oxford. When Neil turns up, Jennifer offers her old kitchen units for the Village Hall. They go in to hear from Lynda that all the female roles have been cast: Kirsty will be playing Ruth and Lynda herself will be playing Marie (the busybody – perfect casting).
• Lynda has planned some trust exercises but before that, they all want to know how the nudity is to be handled. All this talk of getting kit off is too much for Neil; he needs some fresh air.
• Exercises over, Lynda makes it clear that she will not be taking part herself in next week’s photo-shoot: her character doesn’t take her clothes off. Oh no! That’s not good enough. They need her to demonstrate solidarity: all in it together or not at all. So that’s settled! (It’s not often that Lynda is outmanoeuvred.)