Usha and Tommy discuss expert witnesses and Simon, in a roundabout sort of a way, asks Debbie to share his new flat.

Radio Times: Simon wants a monopoly on Debbie.

Characters: Debbie, Jill, Lizzie, Nigel, Simon Gerrard, Tommy, Usha

• In that way that happens to Antabrigians, Nigel, Usha and Jill all bump into each other outside Underwoods. Nigel’s waiting for him mum to finish buying out the baby department, Jill’s taking advantage of their being a chaffeur to drive her into town (harvest kicks off tomorrow, so the able-bodied folk will be busy) and Usha is on her way to her Borchester office ahead of an afternoon meeting with Tommy.
• Harvest has started slightly earlier at Home Farm and a busy Debbie is interrupted by an insistent Simon who has a possible flat in Borchester that he wants her to look at. (Lizzie interrupts, en route to see Jennifer, and the gossip will, no doubt, start here after she reports her siting to Jill ….) It’s unclear which bit of Debbie’s “I’m very busy working – farmers are very dull socialites at harvest” he doesn’t understand, but she relents. When they see it later the flat is in Borchester’s cosmopoliation corner and is really quite swish, although a bit of trek to his work in Felpersham – it’s handy for Ambridge though. He’s confident that he’ll be sharing it, but Debbie’s none too sure about that particular proposition.
• Usha and Tommy meet to plot his defence, she’s contacted various pressure groups and specialist research units to ask for expert witness statements (National Pollen Research Unit, Soil Association, Friends of the Earth, Pesticide Trust and so on). He seems almost as concerned to get her (and his barrister) to defend his mates as to discuss his case. Of course, she’s not allowed to contact them to offer representation and while his bail conditions say he can’t either, it’s obvious that he wants to if he thinks no-one will know …
• Phil and Jill are at Lower Loxley for drinks. It seems that Lizzie’s off to London tomorrow to meet with major clients who are wavering as to whether to continue to use them (although she’s not telling Julia, who’s cossetting her a little too much). She suggests to Nigel that, as she’ll be away, maybe he might invite Tim and Siobhán around for dinner, after all, they’ll be happy to chat about babies …..