Return Of The Bad Penny

 

Tim Oatey (Carl Prekopp)

Life never seems to get much easier for Ed Grundy, does it? On Monday he finds that a lot of rubbish has been fly-tipped in one of his fields and that a ewe has a nasty cut on her mouth. Clearing up the mess and treating the injured animal makes Ed late for a baling job in Little Croxley. He vows to put a stop to this sort of thing and buys a new padlock and a length of chain - that will teach them!

Sadly, Ed is mistaken and, a couple of days later, he is in the same field, surveying a pile of fly-tipped rubbish. To rub salt into the wound, the fly tippers have removed his padlock and replaced it with one of their own, making it difficult for Ed to get into his own field.  As he clears up this second mess, he decides that he and Will will stake out the field that evening, in case the miscreant(s) return. He makes the mistake of telling Emma of his plan and she is terrified that there will be a violent confrontation.

As it turns out, the two brothers are a bit late in taking up their positions, as a load of pigs have escaped and are trashing the garden (see my earlier comment about life not being easy). It is getting dark when Ed sees the lights of a vehicle coming down the lane. As the driver steps out and is caught in the lights, we hear Ed gasping “Oh my God! I don’t believe it!” in his best Victor Meldrew impression, and thus Wednesday’s episode ends on a cliffhanger.

Who could it be? Sgt Burns? Peggy Woolley? No, nobody so unlikely - the driver is, in fact, Tim Oatey; the person who lured Ed into delivering dodgy chemicals and pesticides for his illegal operations. The repercussions of this were far-ranging, as Adam sacked Ed from his job at Home Farm (Adam couldn’t risk getting involved in another scandal about illegal chemicals), which meant that Ed and Emma lost the house they were hoping to buy on the Beeches estate, plus the pair separated and almost split up permanently. As you can imagine, Tim does not feature highly on Ed and Emma’s Christmas card list and, when Emma learns from Ed that Tim is back on the scene, she urges her husband to grass him up to the police - or, at the very least, inform Crimestoppers anonymously.

Ed is reluctant, as it goes against the grain to inform on a mate -“doing the police’s job for them” -  as Dad Eddie puts it and Ed seems to have forgotten the loss of the house, the loss of his job and the fact that Tim made some very-thinly-veiled threats against Emma, saying that he knows where she works and which way she goes home at night. In the end, sanity prevails and Thursday’s episode ends with Ed giving Crimestoppers Tim’s name. You never know Ed; you may even get a reward.

Emma is involved on a one-woman crusade to get the village to hold a Virtual Flower and Produce Show (VFPS) online. Unfortunately, Clarrie won’t let her anywhere near the vegetable patch (that was Joe’s speciality) and is vehemently opposed to the idea. Emma is surprised, but consoles herself with the thought that Bert Fry, at least will be up for the chance to display his veg online.

Except that he isn’t - Emma thinks that he is worried about the technology, but the truth is that Bert is missing the cut and thrust of his annual competition with Joe Grundy, as Joe’s death has taken away the rivalry that existed between the pair. Never mind - Emma has a plan B and that is for her to bake the Harvest Pie that was Nic’s favourite and get the children to write little notes to accompany a slice of said pie, delivered to the villagers. These notes would promote the VFPS and they proved very successful - both Bert and Mrs Woolley agreed to enter the show online, and Emma thinks that Bert shed a small tear when he got a note from Poppy.

Over at the house of Chris and Alice Carter, times are hard; Chris is in dispute with Thandi - a client who goes in for dressage - over her horse. She says that Chris pricked her horse’s foot when shoeing her, plus she thinks that Chris has been spreading gossip about her affair with a married man. Thandi is very influential in Borsetshire equine circles and is, in Chris’s words, “a formidable keyboard warrior” so she has the potential to do considerable damage to Chris’s business - and this at the time when Alice has chucked in her job.

Father Brian is musing on all this when he is combining the barley - he is doing this to help Adam out “and to prove that I’m not ready for the mobility scooter just yet.” Fat lot of good that would do you in a field of barley, Brian. Brian was amused when, earlier in the day, Alice told her parents that she had an announcement to make. Jennifer, apparently, was all a-quiver, expecting news of a pregnancy and seeking out her ‘I’m going to be a grandmother again’ badge. When it transpired that the news was that Alice has resigned form her job, Jenny was very disappointed and had some harsh words to say about the wisdom of giving up a good job in the current economic climate.

Alice has apparently been hitting the bottle quite hard over recent days and she thinks the time is right for her to start trying to find new clients. “A drink will help clear my head” she says, reaching for the vodka - this is just before lunch, incidentally. She gets a call from Brian, who says that he’d like to talk to her and he’s on his way over. Panic! Alice spills her drink and, as the doorbell rings, she hides the voddie bottle under the sofa.

Brian wants to know the ins and outs of why Alice gave up her job and his daughter eventually admits that she was on the verge of being sacked and decided to jump before she was pushed. Brian’s response to this is to offer her a job at Home Farm (doing what exactly was not revealed) and to suggest that she has a stiff whisky, as that always makes things look better. Especially after a few vodkas as well, I reckon.

Being a dutiful daughter, Alice pours herself a slug and downs it, offering a toast to her father, who has just left; “To my wonderful dad - at least he has faith in me.” For his part, on the drive home, Brian says that he’s glad that Alice came clean, but he’s not convinced that lying to Chris is a good idea. “She’s a chip off the old block - she’s got that Aldridge grit.” 

Chris, meanwhile, is wondering how to counter Thandi’s online messages, slagging him off, and he asks Jakob’s advice. Jakob’s answer is simple - apologise. Maybe Chris didn’t make a mistake and prick the horse, but better to admit to it and thus stop Thandi’s campaign in its tracks. He takes Jakob’s advice and rings Thandi up to say ‘sorry’ and the conversation, says Chris, went better than he had expected.

Back at home, Alice is experiencing a major crisis - the two bottles of burgundy that she has been keeping back have vanished, as Chris gave them to uncle Gary for a belated birthday present; consequently, the house is now an alcohol-free zone. Disaster! Alice gets into the car and drives to a petrol station/store, where she buys a couple of bottles. Sabrina Thwaite is there and apparently she made a pointed remark about alcohol consumption and early afternoon.

This is all water off a duck’s back and, once back home, Alice cooks Chris a nice meal. “Time for a Rioja break” she tells herself, as she awaits her husband’s return, but she is in for a shock; “I can’t believe the bottle is empty” she says, in amazement. Alice, my dear, I fear that you have the beginnings of a problem and, if not careful, you could well end up like your auntie Lilian.