Gareth Pierce (Gavin Moss)
Kirsty goes to see Susan, to thank her for having Philip and Gavin on her radio show – it has already had some positive effects; Philip has been contacted by a firm of builders who want him to quote for a job, plus Jennifer has made them a steak pie as a ‘thank you’ to Gavin for driving Alice to hospital. Susan says she should be thanking Phil and Gavin for making the show so interesting. However, there is something that she would like to talk to Kirsty about “in the spirit of neighbourliness.”
And that something is whether or not Gavin has got a gambling problem – Susan overheard Gavin on his phone saying something about ‘having trouble with the horses’. In Susan’s experience, this sort of thing needs to be nipped in the bud as soon as possible, as “we don’t want that nice young man going astray.” Kirsty thinks Susan has got the wrong end of the stick, as Gavin never goes near a bookie’s, but Susan points out that it’s so easy to bet online nowadays and, although Kirsty tells Susan not to mention it to anyone (as if!) the seed has been planted.
So it is that Kirsty has a word with Philip and we have a situation where she is talking about gambling, but he thinks that she has twigged his dodgy dealings with his three labourers (the ‘horses’ to which Gavin was referring) and we have the two of them talking at cross purposes about different things. Philip eventually cottons on and is relieved that his secret remains undiscovered, although it means that he has to go along with the Gambling Gavin scenario.
Kirsty says Gavin needs help and she wonders why he started gambling. Philip suggests that it could be that he needed the money to pay for the extravagant dream wedding that Gavin and Kelly (now his ex) had originally planned.
The atmosphere in the Moss/Miller household has subtly changed and Gavin picks up on the general mood of disapproval and asks what has he done now, and why is he in the doghouse? Kirsty replies that if he needs help, then she and Philip are there for him. Gavin is totally mystified and Phil tries to give him a hint by saying that they are talking about the gambling. “What gambling?” asks a still-bemused Gavin, but then he catches on, much to Philip’s relief, and he pretends that yes, he did have a problem, but it’s all in the past now. Kirsty is pleased that he has owned up and tells him again that they are there to support him and that the three of them will see this through together. The plot thickens and it looks like life for Gavin is going to get a bit more complicated.
Going back to the ‘horses’, Philip thinks that Blake is becoming a liability – since the explosion, he has been unable to do any heavy work, but he is costing them money in food and drink. Philip contacts a builder friend to see if he can sell Blake on to him as a painter/decorator, but when Gavin gets to hear of this, he is dismayed, saying that, if Blake goes, they won’t get much work from the two remaining horses.
Gavin is, in fact, becoming ever more-disillusioned with his life in Ambridge (or “the goldfish bowl” as he calls it) and wishes he could have a fresh start somewhere else, away from prying eyes. He runs into Alice, who is sitting on the bank of the Am, also contemplating her future. The pair talk and Alice mentions that she is considering a termination, to which Gavin says that, if she goes ahead with it, to make sure she takes somebody with her. He reveals that his ex had a termination last year, so he knows what he is talking about. He also recommends that Alice talks to Chris.
This she does, interrupting his boring account of Grandad Bert’s dinner at Susan’s (more of this later) with a bald “I’m pregnant.” Chris is overwhelmed and doesn’t seem to notice Alice when she says she doesn’t know what to do, telling her that she is going to be the perfect mum. “This is going to be so right for us – I know it.” He burbles happily, adding that they should crack open a bottle, but then he checks himself, saying “but we can’t now, can we? We have to start as we mean to go on.” This is not likely to improve Alice’s mood any.
But back to Susan’s special dinner for dad Bert. On her radio show, she is celebrating the ‘special bond’ between fathers and daughters and tells her listeners that she is having her dad over for a bonding meal. The result, as she tells Tracy later, was a disaster – he spurned the honey-glazed pork and dauphinoise potatoes and demanded chips. Halfway through the meal he turned on the TV and put his feet up on the coffee table. Furthermore, every time Susan went into the kitchen, he would tap his fork on his plate to summon her back “like a waitress” Susan tells her sister, indignantly. His behaviour was extremely weird and it cannot just be about his shoplifting. “We need to have a chat about it” Susan tells Tracy.
Personally, I reckon that Tracy got at Bert and told him to behave badly, so that Susan appreciates just what hard work her father is and what Tracy has to put up with every day. As for the ‘special bond’ between father and daughter, Susan’s message to Tracy ends with the observation that Neil is driving Bert back home “and it couldn’t have come quickly enough.”
And now it’s time for last week’s moment of pretentiousness. I say ‘moment’ but it actually lasts a lot longer than that and seems destined to go on for another week at least. Regular Archers listeners will have instantly realised that, if we are talking pretentiousness, then that must mean the Snells – and Lynda in particular. They have resolved to enter their garden in the upcoming virtual Flower and Produce Show, but Lynda is having doubts – have they been bold enough? Do they have a coherent vision? There’s less than a week before the show. “If we are going to win, we must subvert the form” Lynda tells her husband.
Yes, I didn’t have an idea what she was talking about either, but it seemed to involve trellis. Apparently, there’s lots of it in the shed and it won’t take Robert long to get it out and clean it up, will it? He protests that he already has a lot to do and he needs to keep the slugs away from his begonias. The discussion gets a bit heated and the pair cannot agree on what form the garden should take, subverted or otherwise.
Eventually it dawns on them that their ideas are fundamentally different and the solution is to divide the garden in half and both enter their own. As Lynda points out, this will give them two chances to win with two distinctive styles.
Ah, if only it were that easy! The first point of contention is how to divide up the garden. Lynda has drawn up a map, but Robert isn’t happy, as he has been allocated the part that is in the shade. He re-draws the dividing line, which prompts a gasp from Lynda. “You’ve defaced my map” she tells her husband.
Things go downhill from here on – Robert tells Lynda that her plans are unworkable; flowers out of season and suchlike. “It’s not a garden – it’s a stage set” he says, dismissively. Then, when Lynda argues that it is “a concept”, he comes back with “all show and no substance.” Lynda is worried about ‘weedcreep’ as she maintains that Robert never weeds properly and her plot could be “overrun with weeds.” “What, in a week?” he replies, incredulously. I tell you what – I reckon the Snells’ gardens will cause more trouble than the Garden of Eden.
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