Azra has a crisis on her hands, and Lily is faced with an arduous task.

Writer: Sarah McDonald Hughes

30th Nov - 5th December

Pat Archer.... Patricia Gallimore

Ed faces a heartbreaking situation, and there's rivalry building for Hannah.

Joy’s curious to see what Tony’s concocting in his workshop for the tractor run. She’s worried some people aren’t sticking to the Christmassy brief. She’s open to a broad interpretation, but she’d imagined something generally festive. Tony declares his theme is sea creatures – but he can definitely incorporate Christmas. Joy’s anxious; she doesn’t want it all to look random. But Tony thinks it’ll be fun to have some variation. He suggests everyone should relax. It will all work out fine in the end.

Eddie unveils his automatic turkey plucking machine ready for the big day. It looks promising though it makes a bit of a racket. Clarrie has errands to run before they start, and calls in on busy Pat and Tony. Pat notices Clarrie’s arthritis has flared up again and wonders how Clarrie will manage the turkey plucking. Clarrie reports Eddie’s enterprising creation – though she’s not counting her chickens! Sure enough there’s disaster later when the first turkey in the machine gets mangled. Clarrie concludes that they can’t risk ruining all of them – they’ll have to go back to the manual plucking method. Eddie’s deflated. He really wanted to save Clarrie’s hands. However Pat turns up in the nick of time [to save the day]. She rolls up her sleeves, and the plucking starts in earnest. Birds all done, Clarrie expresses her gratitude. Pat’s happy to help. They make a good team, and she misses Clarrie’s presence at Bridge Farm. They might not see one another at work anymore, but they agree they’re still always there for each other.

Susan calls at Honeysuckle Cottage. Ian’s offered her the pizza van for shop deliveries. There aren’t many but she’s hoping word will spread – she doesn’t want people to forget about the shop. Adam assures her that won’t happen, everyone’s missing it. He confirms Ian’s looking forward to accompanying Susan so he can catch up with village gossip. Susan’s hoping the same thing – with the shop closed she’s never been so out of the loop. Later Adam tells her Ian’s come back full of ideas about linking with the shop more formally – a sort of mobile shop combined with pizza delivery. Susan reckons the deliveries are a temporary measure. There’s no substitute for a proper community shop. She’s interrupted by a message from Hazel, who wants to update her on the shop.

Amber announces she’s going to visit her cousin in Ireland for a while, to have some space to think. George concludes she’s breaking up with him even though she assures him this isn’t the case. He talks to Brad, who suggests it might be good for Amber and George to slow things down a bit. He recommends speaking again to Amber, but George wants Brad to talk to her instead and see what he can find out. Reluctant Brad visits Amber. She tells him everything’s a mess. She needs time to work things out. Brad wants to be there for her, but she tells him he can’t and he knows why. She cares about him, and she knows it’s mutual. She makes him promise to forget this conversation happened.

Joy’s keen for information from Hannah on Berrow’s entry for the Christmas tractor run. Hannah tells her Martyn wants them to have a strong presence. She doesn’t share Joy’s enthusiasm at this news – it’s just more for her to do when she’s already busy. Joy offers to help, and turns up later at the Berrow workshop. Hannah reckons she’ll be fine; she’s had a brilliant idea for their entry. Joy’s excited, but Hannah wants to keep it secret until the day. Joy protests that as the organiser she really needs to know. Hannah reveals the concept is ‘space’; she’ll be dressed as an astronaut and there’ll be aliens. She assures Joy it will be fabulous.

Emma apologises to George for last night and Chris taking Martha home. George doesn’t blame Chris. Emma assures him people will move on in time. She offers him work with her on a tree surgery job, as an extra pair of hands, which he accepts. When Emma pushes him on his low mood George admits he thinks Amber doesn’t want to be with him anymore. Emma speaks to Amber, who admits she’s no longer sure she wants to marry George. She asks Emma’s advice. Emma counsels Amber, from experience, to take time to think what she wants. She needs to be honest with George. Amber duly tries to explain her confused feelings to George, who protests he still loves her and just wants everything to be as it was. Frustrated with Amber’s lack of clarity, he storms out.

Eddie’s concerned about Clarrie, whose hands are swollen and sore. With turkey plucking day fast approaching it leaves them with a problem. Clarrie shouldn’t be doing it, but she sees little alternative. Everyone she’s tried for help is busy. Eddie ponders; there must be something they can do. Later Clarrie’s horrified to find Eddie’s taken the back off the washing machine. He’s had an idea that might make her life a bit easier. Clarrie retorts the only thing that will do that is if he puts the machine back together, this instant. Reassuringly Eddie makes a trip to the scrapyard and acquires a drum and motor to progress his plan. He now has the makings of a Grundy Turkey Plucker! No more hand plucking necessary – Clarrie won’t have to lift a finger. Sceptical Clarrie’s will believe it when she sees it.

Chris makes plans to drop off Martha for a sleepover while he has a date with Carly. When George finds out Martha’s staying at Little Grange he says he’ll come over – he hasn’t seen Martha for ages and misses her. He wants to check in on Ed anyway. Emma hesitates before agreeing it’s fine. Later Ed and Emma note how pleased Martha was to see George. Emma’s glad he’s come. However Chris calls in unexpectedly and is shocked to find George there. This can’t happen, and Alice would agree. He takes Martha home. George feels bad; he understands where Chris is coming from. Dejected, he leaves. Emma’s worried about him; she’s never seen him like this.

Amber checks in with George at the Pole Barn to see how Ed is doing. She reckons falling down the stairs could’ve led to a far worse injury, before heading off to a nail appointment.

George is in a filthy mood because of Amber’s accusation, but Brad thinks he’s got the wrong end of the stick. Ed then offers George a lift to Grange Farm and they have a similar conversation, before George shuts the conversation down. Later, when Ed drops in on George at No. 1, The Green, George despairs about his life as a known criminal - even Amber thinks he’s a thief. Ed confesses he knew about her suspicions, but he never believed it himself. George though reckons no-one will ever give him a chance and runs up to his room. When Ed follows, trying to get him to talk, George pushes him and Ed falls downstairs, just as Brad appears. Later, Ed tells Brad that he lost his footing, while George suggests Ed slipped on one of Poppy’s books. Brad reckons Ed was lucky - it could have been a lot worse.

Kirsty walks round the beaver enclosure with Justin, pointing out where the animals have started working. Justin still hasn’t watched the beaver footage Kirsty sent him though, admitting he can’t think of anything more boring than watching beavers build a dam. Passionate Kirsty finds this difficult to understand, accusing Justin of having no real interest in what they’re doing at the Rewilding site. Justin assures her that just because he doesn’t respond emotionally that doesn’t mean he isn’t supportive. As a businessman, he’s thrilled at how well it’s going and thinks he should employ a similarly committed manager to Kirsty on his other rewilding project to guarantee its success.

While feeding the turkeys with George Eddie mentions Amber helping him look for the missing money the other night – he still can’t think where it’s got to. George then offers to go into Borchester with Eddie, wanting to surprise Amber at Farm Supplies on the way. When they have lunch together though, Amber worries about money, wondering how George could afford to buy her ring. As she pushes him George realises that Amber thinks he stole Eddie’s money to pay for it. George reacts badly and walks out, just as Eddie phones Amber to tell her he’s found the lost money in his jacket pocket. Amber then leaves a message for George, apologising and promising she’ll make it up to him. Later at home, mortified Amber tries explaining how worried she’s been about him, before all George’s anxieties over what Amber really thinks start pouring out. He accuses her of not wanting to marry him after all, before storming out.