Tim noses round Honeysuckle Cottage.

Radio Times: Tim noses round Honeysuckle Cottage.

Characters: Alistair, Caroline, George, Jack, Kathy, Tim, William

• Alistair’s Grey Gables tending to a guest’s sploit pooch, but Jack and Caroline have more immediate worries. One of the waitresses hasn’t turned up. Nothing unusual in this, only this waitress is married to the head barman but has been having an affair with Carl … the matter deteriorates when it turns out that Carl has done a bunk, too – the birds were unfed and his room has been emptied. Jack is not in the best of situations as George is still adamant that the end of the month will see him retired.
• William visits Jack to see about the job offer, but, naturally, he’s got, alightly, the wrong end of the stick. Jack will offer William a job as underkeeper if he’s qualified. William’s not sure that he wants to continue studying and would prefer to learn on the job – Jack wonders why he can’t channel that enthusiasm into studying. William asked if Jack had been to college, he was stumbling around trying not to say that he hadn’t when George and Caroline saved him from that embarrassing admission with the problem of the disappearing staff.
• Tim Hathaway, the new doctor, was looking around Nelson’s old place, Honeysuckle Cottage. It’s the nicest place he’s seen and Ambridge is, it seems, the most attractive of the local villages but he’s not sure about the price, whether his wife will think it large enough, nor whether he wants to live in the middle of the village quite so close to the surgery. Kathy fills him in on a few of the background details about the colourful Nelson.
• Later in the bar while Alistair is seeking refuge from the annoying Daniel (who is still having problems sharing his mother with him) Caroline comes in and regales everyone with Grey Gables’ problems. Tim wonders allowed why he ever thought rural life would be uneventful. Meanwhile Kathy is concerned, Sid’s off taking the under-15 indoor nets but is unusually late …