A Budding Bromance?

Ryan Kelly (Jack 'Jazzer' McCreary)

Thursday is the evening of the first of the ‘Beat the Brainboxes’ quiz at The Bull and Jim Lloyd - one of the Brainboxes team - is suffering from nerves. Jazzer has turned up to wish him luck and Jim confides that he doesn’t think he can go through with the ordeal - there are too many people who will be looking at him and he is on the verge of quitting. However, Jazzer tells him that this is what he has been training for and he can do this, and Jim eventually agrees, thanking Jazzer for his support.

Jazzer isn’t taking part in the quiz, telling Jim that he has things to do and he returns home, so he misses Jim’s triumph in the round of daytime TV, where he is up against Clarrie. The Brainboxes win the quiz easily, in case you were interested. Jim returns home and thanks Jazzer again for his faith and encouragement. He also notices that Jazzer appears to be packing and the Scotsman tells him that he is moving out - living there is putting a strain on the relationship and Jazzer admits that he shouldn’t have blabbed to SgtB about Jim’s abused childhood.

Jim says, on the contrary; he is touched that Jazzer cared enough about him to get angry on his behalf. “If you were to move out, I would consider it a significant personal loss” says the Professor, and begs Jazzer to reconsider his decision. “Do you mean it?” Jazzer asks and Jim replies “You’re like a son to me - admittedly a son with questionable personal habits.” Talk about damning with faint praise, but Jazzer is happy and hugs Jim, saying “I love you and all, big man.” Jim backtracks a little, telling Jazzer “I didn’t say that exactly.” Never mind, harmony is restored and Jazzer stays, along with Webster, which Jim refers to as “that eight-legged monstrosity.”

Now here’s a phrase that you don’t read very often in this blog, but I think that Tony was right when he cast doubt upon the wisdom of his mother’s £500k prize for the best environmental project for Ambridge, saying that it could divide the village and sow discord inside families. We learn that the winning bid was submitted by Phoebe, Pip and Rex for their rewilding project and, while they are ecstatic about winning, some of their nearest and dearest are not so happy.

One such is Adam, whose congratulations to Phoebe sounded like they were made through gritted teeth. As he tells Ian later, Phoebe was tapping him up for information to help her bid, without even telling him that she was thinking of entering the competition. Ian tells him to let it go, but losing out on half a million is a bitter pill.

Someone else who isn’t happy is Rooooth. You’d think that she’d be pleased that her daughter is part of the winning team, but she isn’t. Her mood is not improved when Peggy tells her that Brookfield’s plan for a low-carbon farm came a very close second. Rooooth is further narked when she has to take on one of Pip’s scheduled milking slots because Pip is in a meeting with her rewilding partners and Peggy to discuss the fine detail of the project.

At a fund-raising concert later that evening, Rooooth is barely civil to her daughter, to the extent that Pip accuses her “of giving me evils all night.” Rooooth retorts that they (her and David) were afraid that the project would prove a distraction from work at Brookfield and this appears to be the case. Pip says her mother is overreacting and that rewilding the less productive parts of Brookfield could prove beneficial in the long run. Rooooth is appalled and tells Pip that there is no way that she will be having any of Brookfield’s land. “I thought you were a farmer, not a park keeper” she spits.

Pip declares that she’s upset and, had things been the other way round, she would be totally supportive of the Brookfield initiative. Rooooth says that she was really passionate about low-carbon Brookfield and they included Pip in their plans, only to have it thrown back in their face. “It could have safeguarded our future and given something to pass on to future generations - and you’ve ruined it!” says an angry Rooooth.

So that’s it - at the end of the day it’s all about the money and, while Pip could point out that her future is pretty well safeguarded, this might not be the time nor the place to do it.

In fact, she and her rewilding chums might not find it as easy as they thought - at the meeting with Peggy to discuss the next steps in the project, Peggy drops something of a bombshell, pointing out that Phoebe, Pip and Rex (hereafter known as PPR) do not actually own any land to rewild, if I may coin a verb. The submission was to rewild 400 acres of land and the ACT Trustees would like them to have the full 400 acres in place by Christmas. Just to make it that bit harder, the Trustees are minded not to give the trio any money up front, but will release funds when PPR can prove that they have firm commitments to purchase “a proportion” of the 400 acres. How big a proportion? Peggy was thinking of 60% and she’d like the first progress report by the end of the month, please. As Peggy goes, leaving the stunned youngsters to digest what she has said, Rex says they will just have to live with the conditions. This was before Rooooth put the mockers on using any Brookfield land, incidentally.

Lexi has returned to Ambridge, but she must be wondering if she has made the right decision, as Jennifer pounces on her, saying that she has missed out on so much of the pregnancy, but is going to get fully involved now. This includes cooking some horrible-sounding cakes and sweetmeats and giving Lexi gratuitous advice, like not sleeping on her back. “I have been pregnant before, Jennifer” Lexi says dryly, adding: “Twice”. This is all water off Jennifer’s back and Adam ends up apologising for his mother going way over the top. Meanwhile, I wouldn’t be surprised if Lexi was found looking up flight times to Bulgaria.

Everyone has questions for her; some of which are very personal (‘how was the baby conceived?’) but Lexi lets it all wash over her. However, I can tell you that the three parents do know the sex of their child, but prefer to keep it a secret for now. Oh, and yes, the baby is due on 26^th September.

At Grange Farm, Will has visited the doctor, but isn’t saying anything about what was said. He is still very low, to the extent that, when he is arranging his screws in size order in the shed (everybody needs a hobby) Clarrie joins in to help, mindful of the fact that there are a lot of sharp tools and implements laying around. Will is well aware of what she is up to and the pair talk, ending up with a tearful Will saying that all he wants is to have Nic back as she was before. Perhaps they should get the doctor (or maybe Alan) to give him a talk on the somewhat permanent nature of mortality.

There are hopes that Will is getting better, as he takes part in the Brainboxes quiz. He goes to bed early and Eddie and Clarrie discuss his future. Maybe it would be better if he went back to work, Clarrie asks? Eddie pours cold water on this, saying that Clarrie didn’t see the look in her son’s eyes when he was handling the shotgun. If Will went to work, he’d be around guns again “And if I’ve got any say in it, he’ll never get close to a gun - ever again.” Clarrie points out that gamekeeping is all Will has ever known and to give it up could have dire consequences. I suppose they could compromise and he could be the only gamekeeper to be armed with a catapult, but it seems unlikely.

Meanwhile, Ed goes to see Emma and begs her to tell no-one about Will. She is reluctant at first - what if Will throws another wobbler when the children are around? Ed tries to make her see that Will’s problem goes way back - back to when Ed and Emma started their affair, in fact - and they are partly responsible for the current situation. Eventually, Emma agrees to keep it buttoned, but adds that she won’t let Will see George ever again; or at least not for a very long time. Ed protests that this will depress Will even further, but Emma is adamant. Even worse, when Ed tries to bring the subject round to himself and Emma’s relationship, she cuts him short, saying that he can see the kids “but, apart from that, I don’t want anything to do with you or your family - ever again.”

Elsewhere, Jakob is picking Kate up at The Lodge to go and see a film in Borchester. Kate, of course, isn’t ready and Jakob is left alone with Peggy, trying to explain why he doesn’t like cake. The conversation is stilted, but then Jakob says why he likes Kate: it’s the work she does for the community and the fact that she is “a peacemaker within the family.” Peggy is astonished and says she’s off to powder her nose. Jakob asks if she and Kate have some sort of alert system in place for situations like this and it becomes evident that he thinks that Kate is Peggy’s full-time carer and how noble it is that she should take on such a role.

Peggy decides to have some fun and, when Kate returns, Peg keeps asking her to fetch things within reach and to draw the curtain and how long will they be gone in case she needs the toilet? Jakob says that they don’t need to go to the movie, or the planned meal afterwards and Peggy (who we have said in the past, can exhibit a bit of a cruel streak sometimes) suggests that they could all stay there and spend the afternoon playing rummy. “But first, dear, the lavatory, please” Peggy tells her granddaughter.

Finally, we have an insightful piece of self-realisation. Oliver has obviously been reading up on improving staff relations, as he interviews Tracy about how she is getting on in her new job. Tracy is clutching a bunch of (I think) Agrimony throughout the interview and tells Oliver that she wants to hand in her notice. Why, is something wrong? Is she being treated OK? Tracy blurts out that she cannot work in a haunted hotel (the agrimony is to ward off evil spirits) and the whole story about haunted room 13 comes out. Oliver says there’s something she doesn’t know and reveals that Mrs Jones (who complained about the room) is a con artist who has tried this trick at a number of hotels - she loads up her bill with food and drink, then complains about the room being haunted, refuses to pay and leaves. Tracy withdraws her notice, bins the flowers and - and here is the bit of self-realisation - says to Oliver “I’ve made a right prat of myself, haven’t I?” You said it Tracy, not me.