Will the Open Gardens competition turn into Borsetshire’s ‘War of the Roses’?

Radio Times: Kenton’s stairway to heaven.

Characters: Adam, Clarrie, Debbie, Eddie, Joe, Kenton, Lynda

• Adam and Debbie are looking round Lynda’s garden at Ambridge Hall. Lynda is beside herself with worry in case visitors step off the path and churn up the beds before Alan has a chance to see them. Joe exercises his right to visit and he and Lynda immediately resume their verbal warfare. Her offer of homemade lemonade sends Joe scurrying back to Clarrie with an idea. As Debbie and Adam try to escape the atmosphere, he expresses the hope that she doesn’t think him a ‘cuckoo in the nest’ at Home Farm. She reassures him that she enjoys having him around. Reconciliation with Brian was irrevocable long before Adam came home.
• Clarrie is not going to provide homemade lemonade, or even orange squash, for the few visitors who are coming to Keeper’s Cottage. Too much work! Joe will offer Alan some of his cider instead. He reckons the Grundy garden will be a welcome relief after the highbrow poetic experience of Ambridge Hall! Eddie’s sick of a bunch of strangers tramping all round the place – Joe, much to Clarrie’s disgust, consoles him by saying he’s been trying to sell a few ornaments if people look interested. Eddie moans that more stuff has been dumped on their land. Joe says Ed will be back from Cyprus tomorrow – he’s rung to say his flight will be in at 3.30am. He’ll be able to help Eddie shift the stuff. But Eddie can only dwell on the fact that Clarrie has told Ed his Dad will be at the airport to meet him …
• Debbie is helping Kenton erect his new platform bed. Where he fails, she succeeds, leading him to ask what he’d do without her. She tells him about applying for the job in France, and though he hopes it works out for her, he says how much he’ll miss her if she goes. Kenton offers to buy her a drink in return for a lift back to Ambridge – he thinks they should enjoy each other’s company while they can.
• At the Bull, Lynda and Clarrie agree that Jolene doesn’t seem to be taking providing the judge’s lunch at all seriously – bunging Alan Titchmarsh a ploughman’s (Eddie’s words!) just won’t be classy enough! Kenton arrives, siding with Eddie against the girls, and expressing preference for the attributes of Charlie Dimmock … Both Lynda and Clarrie, in rapt anticipation of tomorrow, seem oblivious of their teasing, though Lynda is regretting not being able to get a cart for her llamas to pull Alan round the gardens, and is completely lost for words when Kenton quizzes her about the connection between Shakespeare and Peru! Clarrie just can’t wait to meet him – she’s so excited …