Charles Collingwood (Brian Aldridge)
Brian Aldridge is concerned about his wife Jennifer - her capacity to grab hold of the wrong end of the stick appears to be limitless and her ability to weave a fantasy from thin air is breathtaking in the extreme. Take last week - she is convinced that Lexi isn’t going to return to Bulgaria; “All the signs are there” she tells her husband and Brian’s response is to tell her to pull herself together.
Jennifer pops round to see Ian and baby Xander. Helen is there and Ian admits that he feels very much as the third in line with his son - Lexi is Xander’s mother, Adam is the biological father and then comes Ian. He confesses to being emotional (the poor sod isn’t getting much sleep, which doesn’t help) and Helen reassures him that he will be a great dad and that he has already bonded with Xander.
Not in Jennifer’s fevered imagination he hasn’t, as she tells Brian that Ian was emotional “and it’s all down to Lexi?” “Did he say that?” Brian asks, surprised. “Not in so many words, but he’s getting anxious” Jen replies. Brian says that she’s getting worked up about nothing, but in what passes for Jen’s mind, Ian and Adam have put their hearts and souls into this pregnancy and they are totally happy “and it could all be snatched away from them.” Lexi could come back and take Xander, so what, she asks her husband, should they do about it?
Brian has an idea and goes round to see Lexi. He mentions that Debbie has years of experience of working in Eastern Europe and has built up a load of contacts in a variety of industries, including the best hotel in Sofia. Perhaps they could put in a good word for Lexi when she returns home and is looking for a job? The fact that Debbie is based in Hungary, not Bulgaria, seems to be irrelevant and Brian says he’ll forward Lexi’s contact details to Debbie.
Lexi is grateful for Brian’s attention, but points out that moving to Sofia would mean a lot of upheaval for her and her two daughters, plus it would mean more expense and a higher cost of living. No problem, Brian tells her - he and Jennifer would be only too pleased to help out with expenses after what Lexi has done for their family. In fact, as luck would have it, he believes that he has his cheque book with him today and he agrees that moving house can indeed be an expensive business.
As the penny drops, Lexi is stunned and accuses Brian of trying to buy her off, which is illegal. She realises that Brian and Jen are fearful that she wants to keep Xander - if that were the case, why didn’t she just stay in Bulgaria to give birth? Lexi spells out to Brian that she did what she did because Ian and Adam are her friends and she wanted them to be happy. Brian is embarrassed and apologises to Lexi for ’the misunderstanding’. In icy tones, Lexi asks him politely to leave.
Unfortunately, we were not privy to how Brian broke the news of his debacle to Jennifer, but the next day Ian turns up, with baby Xander, and tells Jennifer that he had an angry Lexi on the phone for an hour earlier and when is Brian coming home? Ian is one of the nicer people in Ambridge, but he is not a happy bunny and, when Brian does return, Ian asks him straight out whether he tried to buy Lexi off? Brian says that he was offering her reasonable expenses, but Ian reports that Lexi is very, very unhappy.
Brian says that Jen was worried sick over the weekend and, as if to demonstrate that she still has only a tenuous grip on reality, she asks Ian if he’s sure that Lexi won’t change her mind about Xander? Ian’s response is that, throughout the process, he and Adam have had complete trust in Lexi and, when Jen reminds him that Lexi still has rights, he replies that Lexi’s commitment has never once wavered.
Jen seems to have come to her senses and, in a contrite voice, she says that she just couldn’t bear to see it all spiral out of control. Ian retorts that the only thing out of control was all in Jen’s head and, furthermore, she and Brian have offended the very person who made all this possible. Brian asks if he should go to see Lexi and apologise, but Jen accepts responsibility for the whole mess (better late than never, I suppose). “I should never have interfered” she says in a quiet voice.
Suffice it to say that Jen does meet - and apologises to - Lexi, who says that Jen has never once considered the whole surrogacy thing from Lexi’s perspective - what if Adam and Ian had changed their minds? What if the baby had not been born healthy? Lexi says that she did it for her friends; not for money, or a job. Jen says that she is sure that Adam and Ian will be wonderful fathers to Xander. “And that is why I did it” Lexi replies. Hang your head in shame, Jennifer.
And now the good news - Ed Grundy is at Hollowtree and, in passing, he mentions that, this year, there will be no Christmas extravaganza from Lynda Snell “So we can relax and enjoy ourselves this year” Ed tells his friends. Tracy also told Elizabeth, Russ and Lily the same story but, personally, I’ll believe it when I’m not seeing it, if you catch my drift - we have had the cup of hope dashed from our lips too many times before to get our hopes up.
Over at Grange Farm, Clarrie is smothering her two sons with love, doing everything for them except wiping their bottoms. This is getting on Ed’s nerves, but Will is enjoying being pampered and berates his brother for being ungrateful. But soon, the pair have other, pressing (pun intended) problems, as they are processing apples for this year’s cider crop and, how can we put this?, they cock it up and the main screw on the cider press breaks. The press is even older than Joe and the boys are not optimistic for the future of the Cider Club. Eddie turns up and waxes Messianic, saying that the press is “a ray of hope” for the village and “whatever it takes lads, we’ve got to find a way to get the cider flowing again.”
Last week was when we learned the result of the bids for Crowther’s abattoir. Justin wonders if he should up his sealed bid and tries to tempt Lilian into investing. She declines, as she has been dead set against Justin’s plans to use the site for office development. Lilian is putting in a shift at The Bull and the obnoxious Vince Casey is buying rounds for his friends to celebrate what he is convinced will be his victory in buying Crowther’s.
As it turns out, Vince does indeed win and he implies that he has a contact on the inside and that he knew that Justin’s bid was for property development, rather than the abattoir as a going concern. On learning the result, a despondent David goes home, having thrown his support behind what he believed was Justin’s bid for an abattoir as a going concern.
Lilian is relieved by the result, but Vince hasn’t finished making mischief yet. David goes to see Justin and accuses him of putting in a bid for property development; in effect misleading David and his fellow supporters. Justin says that David made his own assumptions. “So what do we do when Casey starts charging whatever he likes?” David asks. “That’s up to him, I’m afraid” Justin says, unhelpfully.
David suggests that Justin has not played quite straight and reminds him that he is living in their community. “I thought Casey was a nasty piece of work - but you, Justin - I’ll never trust you again - and nor will anyone else in Ambridge.” David asked Lilian if she knew about this and she admits that she did, but she never approved Justin’s plans, nor did she help him.
I think we can safely assume that Justin and Lilian will not be among the first people to be invited to sit round the Brookfield dining table on Christmas Day.
Justin featured in a number of stories last week. One of these involved Hannah, who is getting fed up with a leaking gutter (it has been leaking since Easter). She complains to Neil, who says it is on his ‘to do’ list, but he is waiting for a cherry picker, so that all gutters can be cleaned in one go.
‘Sod that’ thinks Hannah and Neil is horrified to see her on a 20ft ladder, on her own, cleaning out said gutter. He tells her that she is in breach of about 900 Health & Safety rules and could have been seriously injured, but she says that a) she’s ok and b) the gutter is clear, so it’s a win-win situation. Unfortunately, she falls over a pothole in the yard and cuts her head, necessitating a visit to A&E.
Neil drives her there and comes across Hannah on the phone to Justin, filling him in on the day’s events. Sadly for Neil, the pothole was another thing on Neil’s ‘to do’ list and Justin is not happy, as he makes plain to Neil. Neil points out that Hannah was being “reckless and foolhardy” and perhaps he should have sacked her. No way, says Justin, and blames Neil’s poor management, adding: “I’ll be keeping a very close eye on Berrow Farm for the foreseeable future - is that understood? And by that, I mean you.” It could have been worse for Neil, as this all happened before Justin had his run-in with David; had it been afterwards, no doubt Justin’s mood would have been even less charitable.
However, perhaps there is another opportunity opening up for Neil. If you remember, Rex is having trouble with his boar, Boris, who is showing absolutely no interest in the opposite sex. Various people have made suggestions to remedy the situation, with Rex moving a sow into Boris’s pen, all to no avail. Rex and Pip talk about what to do, with Pip saying “Have you tried Neil again?” Call me old-fashioned, but I can’t help feeling that Boris would much prefer a pig.
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