Self Doubts

Andrew Wincott (Adam Macy)

There was an awful lot of introspection and self-doubting abroad in Ambridge last week; first we had Adam reading through his old diaries and feeling nostalgic for his younger self. He talked about a friend of his who is doing good works in Africa "while I'm just a cog in a corporate machine." He also bemoaned the fact that he didn't manage to get the mega-dairy scheme stopped.

Lilian takes him out riding and he tells her all about his feelings of unrest. Instead of smacking him in the head with her riding crop and telling him to pull himself together, Lilian tells Ian that Adam "needs taking out of himself." Get back to bloody work, man!

At The Bull, Kenton is also in introspective mode, having just been sent some pictures of his daughter. "I know I've been a lousy Dad," he said, in a rare moment of self-awareness, as five million listeners nodded in agreement. Kenton would like to go and see Meriel in New Zealand and tries to persuade Jolene. She however, is lukewarm and says "let's park it for now." Why is Kenton so keen all of a sudden? The last time he saw his daughter she was probably recovering from having her umbilical cord cut.

Someone for whom self doubt is a closed book is Tom and no doubt his sense of self-importance was inflated when Pat tells him "you've carried this farm over the past few months." And so he should, having been a major cause of his Dad's heart attack. It looks like Tony is getting back into the swing of things, having hired a relief milker and even making sandwiches for Tom and Pat. Tom is incredulous that his Dad has managed these difficult tasks, but Pat tells him that Trevor (the relief) can't start for at least two and a half weeks and the sandwiches turn out to be beef and avocado and brie and mushroom. Never mind, it's the thought that counts – presumably the thought being "I wonder if I can make that smug son of mine throw up?"

Over at Brookfield, the tension is rising, with the threats against David and the family. David is still determined to appear as a witness and says defiantly that the thugs "are not taking over our lives". Er, David, as you have been given a panic button by the police and you spend Thursday installing four CCTV cameras, I submit that your lives have already been fundamentally changed. That and telling the kids to take their mobile phones if they go any further than the bathroom and making them stay inside, of course. To make matters worse, Farm Sunday is fast approaching and do they really want strangers wandering all over the farm? At this rate, the visitors will be herded around at the point of a pitchfork.

Someone who I would cheerfully stick with said implement is Amy. I used to like her, but she has turned into a right cow and it would be better for everybody if she went to live somewhere else. Alice mentions to Chris that Amy is thinking of moving out and Chris, quick as a flash, says "we haven't got the room." Well done Chris – you headed that one off at the pass nicely. Alice also suggests that she should do some detective work to prove to Amy – whose capacity for self-delusion is monumental, as she suggests that Carl might be unhappily married – that Carl is married and is a cheating, love-rat, rather than misunderstood and lonely. I think the best answer would be for Amy to find work somewhere else and quietly leave. Quickly.

Jim ruined his chances of getting closer to Christine when he gave full vent to his republican convictions. The inhabitants of number 8 have ignored Lynda's Diktat of a red, white and blue colour scheme for Britain in Bloom and planted a host of yellow tagetes. This to Lynda is a hanging offence and she beats manically on their door. Sadly they aren't in at the time and, when Jim opens his trap to stick up for "the individual touch", Christine is not impressed and decides to go home alone. That's the last lot of scones you're going to get for a while, Jim, my lad.

As the Jubilee approaches, people are getting more stressed, with Lynda stopping just short of threatening to strangle the children with the maypole streamers if they don't get the dance right. Clarrie, meanwhile, is being seriously let down by villagers who had promised to make a sponge so that they can be assembled into one large, iced cake for the Jubilee. Things aren't helped by Joe forgetting to tell her that so-and-so called and won't be able to make a cake, or that Sabrina Thwaite has a query and he said Clarrie would ring her back – this was a couple of days ago. 

Clarrie is on the verge of going spare and tells Joe to stop going on about Bob Pullen being chosen to cut the cake as she's sick of it. Ruth then lets Clarrie down by not making her sponge as promised and Clarrie is in despair, wondering if there will even be a village cake at this rate.