Tom has to explain a night on the tiles. James reveals his antipathy for Adam.

Radio Times: Tom plays away from home.

Characters: Brenda, Helen, James, Pat, Ruth, Sid, Tom

• Helen has decided to make some cheese while the dairy is quiet, so she will not be accompanying Pat to the service which, it being Rogation Sunday, is on Lakey Hill. But she has not given up going to church. Tomorrow she feels bound to support Adam’s open day. Neither of them knows where Tom was last night – not with Kirsty, that’s for sure.
• Although not a regular churchgoer, Ruth felt that she should go – the service is on Brookfield land after all. Pip is at home doing homework so that Izzy can visit later. Ruth is still not happy about Pip going to Meadow Rise until she has met Izzy’s ‘invisible’ mother.
• Seeing a light in the dairy, Tom finds his sister hard at work. He is unable to persuade her to come to The Bull but is obliged to explain his absence last night: he crashed at a mate’s (no one she knows) after drinking too much.
• Brenda has persuaded James to join her in The Bull. Although Sid is proud of his new decor, James points out that his gran might not appreciate the prominent position given to a photo of her first husband, looking distinctly merry. Brenda would like to use James’s media contacts for a story about a suspended consultant at Borchester General; she explains that she is still suffering the fall-out from her disastrous council corruption story on Radio Borsetshire. James fobs her off, advising her to talk to her new boss. He won’t come with her to the Home Farm open day tomorrow: he and Adam do not see eye to eye. That’s a pity, because Brenda thinks he’s great but James is not keen to see the countryside covered in plastic.