The Archers

Lily has major concerns, and Zainab comes to the rescue.

Keira and Eddie are surveying the damaged trees at the Community Orchard the day after the storm. Many trees have been destroyed and there are hundreds of apples to collect before they start to rot. Keira’s glad to have mild injuries, enough to allow her off school for the day. Eddie comments on how the storm is good for the tree surgery business. After half an hour of collecting apples they’ve still not made an impact, so Keira suggests raising an army of apple collectors. As a community, they’ve all been through the mill so maybe making things out of the apples together will help everyone.

The storm continues into the early evening of Sunday. At Lower Loxley, David approaches Elizabeth with the news of Vince’s accident and that the ambulance can’t get through. Pip and Stella want to help and remember they have the tractor and front loader.

As Chelsea and Josh wait for the ambulance, Chelsea praises unconscious Vince for saving her life by pushing her out of the way of the tree.

Zainab is putting out more lanterns when a crash and screams are heard from The Orangery. Zainab knows her brother, with Keira and Henry, are in there, and rushes off. Later, Harrison finds Zainab crying with relief. The large chimney had crashed through The Orangery glass onto the buffet, but incredibly, no one was hurt. Ben thinks Keira needs a hospital check to make sure there’s no glass in her cuts. Harrison commends Zainab on her calm reaction – she’s been impressive.

Stella and Pip struggle, but eventually manage, to move the falling tree, allowing the ambulance to get through to Vince. As the rain stops, Elizabeth goes off in the ambulance with Vince and David takes Chelsea home. Pip and Stella reflect on their dramatic day. Perhaps they could do their dance at next year’s Fete or Flower and Produce instead. They are so happy to have married each other.

It’s still Sunday and Ben and Ruth are enjoying the buffet and looking forward to the brides’ first dance. Ruth wishes Josh was there to be part of it – he shouldn’t be missing his own sister’s wedding over a girl he’s just met.

Out in the storm, Vince finally regains consciousness encouraged by Chelsea. She doesn’t want to move him, and can’t raise the alarm on either of their phones, which are trapped in the car. Vince is disorientated but Chelsea promises to run to get help. She hears a voice approach – it’s Josh! He phones for help and they reassure Vince that the fire crew and ambulance are on their way. Chelsea urges Josh to unpack his rucksack for layers to cover Vince, and Josh gives Chelsea a coat. Unable to reach anyone at Lower Loxley, Chelsea urges Josh to talk about his travels to keep Vince alert. Josh had wanted to surprise the family but had to be dropped off by a taxi because of all the fallen trees. Chelsea questions how help will get through to Vince?

Harrison is worried that Vince and Chelsea aren’t answering calls in the storm, and Ben and Ruth realise they’ve missed multiple calls from Josh. Ruth calls Josh and raises the alarm with Harrison. As Ruth promises to bring help, the party music is silenced and lights go out at Lower Loxley – there’s been a power cut.

At Brookfield bungalow, Chelsea is hurricane-proofing Pip’s hair with extra spray when Stella comes in. The brides admire each other’s beauty – they’ve decided not to follow the bad luck superstitions of not seeing each other before the wedding. David arrives with the tractor decorated with fairy lights and Stella drives Pip to Lower Loxley in the pouring rain.

Clarrie and Eddie are ready to leave when they notice damage to the pole-barn roof. There’s no option but to move the turkeys to the shed a mile away. Once that’s done, they decide not to venture out to the wedding and choose warm baths and an old romantic film instead.

With claps of thunder adding to the wedding atmosphere, Pip and Stella exchange heartfelt vows in Lower Loxley’s Great Dining Room. At the drinks reception, Vince lets them know that the photographer is ready for them, but they’re quite windswept. Chelsea offers to get her make up kit from the bungalow to fix them and Vince offers to drive her.

Vince and Chelsea are held up by helping a lady and her children out in the storm with their car. The brides delay the photos and invite everyone to start the buffet over in The Orangery.

Having helped the lady, the perilous journey worsens for Vince and Chelsea, whose road is blocked by debris, possibly fly-tipped wood. They exit the car into the storm and start to move the wood. A tree cracks and Vince alerts Chelsea. They cry out and the car alarm activates as it crashes down.

Officially finished work to concentrate on Sunday’s wedding, Pip and Stella visit Lower Loxley to hear Elizabeth’s wet weather contingency plans. The brides-to-be are upbeat and confident. They’re determined to make the most of it, whatever the weather.

Stella reveals to Pip that she and David have possibly fallen out over her comments about Josh. David joins them with an apology about his outburst. He does actually agree with what Stella said about Josh on Wednesday and realises he’s been a hypocrite. David asks if he can still walk Stella down the aisle after all, and she happily accepts.

Following a frosty encounter with Freddie at breakfast, Vince sends him a voice message outlining some more responsible tasks he has for him to build his skills. Meanwhile, Freddie has a word with his mum, outlining his frustrations with her and Vince, who he thought would have shown him more support. He’s particularly disappointed in Elizabeth’s lack of belief in him to run Lower Loxley. Furious that Vince has seemingly misrepresented her, she and Vince argue. How dare he demotivate her son, someone who already struggles with self-esteem? Vince defends himself, arguing that he shouldn’t always be the bad guy when both of them have reservations about Freddie’s capabilities. Vince wants to build Freddie’s skills, but Elizabeth doesn’t think his hard man tactics are the solution for Freddie. Vince retorts that in that case she shouldn’t come crying to him next time her future livelihood is threatened.

After two days of being ignored by Khalil, Keira has had enough and confronts him on the bus to school. He thinks she should know why he’s not talking to her, but she is adamant that she hasn’t got a clue. Later, Khalil reveals to Henry that Keira broke her promise, telling Henry about Khalil’s childhood cancer. Henry reveals that he actually found out online via a fundraising page featuring an old picture of Khalil. Henry suggests Khalil should apologise to Keira in person. She says this fallout could have been avoided by speaking to her directly instead of blanking her for days. But to make it up to her, he could help collect apples in the community orchard.

Freddie and Rosie have decided on a decorated tractor as the surprise transport for Pip and Stella’s wedding as an alternative to the cancelled ‘unicorn’ horse and carriage.

Vince calls Freddie in to talk about his future. Freddie is buoyant with the knowledge of the trustees having faith in him and wanting him back at Lower Loxley in a year or so. Vince doesn’t want Freddie to take this the wrong way, but in his and Elizabeth’s opinion, he still has a way to go and things to learn before he’s ready. Freddie is blindsided by the comments and petulantly reacts. He suggests that Vince never really believed in him and only took him on at Casey Meats to get into his mum’s good books. All the positivity the trustee news had brought Freddie is gone, leaving Vince frustrated.

At Berrow Farm, Martyn Gibson is concerned about costs in their challenging pig industry and warns Jazzer that they’ll need to make hefty savings. Jazzer fishes for information – does he mean job losses? Martyn assures him that Jazzer's job at least is safe. Jazzer is worried. Hannah’s put an offer in for her first house – and what about Neil?

After talking about the stormy forecast for the wedding, David shares with Brian that he feels Josh has been alienated from Brookfield, and now they’ve lost him. Brian argues that David and Ruth are doing much better than he is with his family.

Alistair’s missing his dad Jim and just wants to meet Jazzer for a friendly pint. But on getting to the bar he’s accosted by Martyn who feels Alistair’s vet invoice was a bit steep. Brian joins in the criticism, suggesting that in the future, with all the welfare monitoring tech available to farms, vets might find themselves redundant.

In The Bull, Brian insists on buying Stella a drink, and she’s joined by Hannah as they’re celebrating Hannah’s new house offer being accepted. Stella loudly vents her frustration with Josh cancelling his wedding plans apparently for a new girl he’s met in Patagonia. She’s appalled when Brian points out that David has overheard. Outside the pub David says he understands her frustration but is really disappointed with her. She shouldn’t have voiced it so clearly to their community. He’s so hurt that he no longer wants to walk her down the aisle.

Keira and Henry wish Khalil a happy 16th birthday and promise him a treat at the school shop. Keira is looking forward to dancing and celebrating with the boys at the wedding, however she’s less impressed at having to go to school over half term for catch up lessons. Waiting in the shop queue, Henry almost lets slip that he knows about Khalil’s childhood cancer and covers himself, however Khalil isn’t fooled. When Keira arrives, Khalil’s sharp with them both, saying he doesn’t want them to buy him anything.

Freddie is annoyed that the ‘Unicorn’ he’s ordered for the wedding has cancelled because of the weather forecast. Elizabeth reminds him that horses don’t like storms. Freddie reveals to his mum that he’d applied to be General Manager of a stately home in dire straits, but the application had not got any further. He’s frustrated that he’ll never get the experience needed to manage Lower Loxley. Elizabeth thinks the struggling hall would have been too much of a challenge, but on a positive note, the trustees have had a shift in attitude towards Freddie. Because of his responsibilities at Casey Meats, he may even be able to take over at Lower Loxley in a year. Later, Vince shares his reservations with Elizabeth. Freddie is doing well but he still has a long way to go. He didn’t ask Elizabeth for help with his stately home application for example – he doesn’t yet have the wisdom to ask for advice when he needs it.

Pip and David discuss AI in farming, which they think can’t be ignored. Pip tells David that Stella’s mum is still coming to the wedding but won’t be walking Stella down the aisle. David offers his services instead of Stella’s mum. The weather forecast still isn’t good for the wedding and Josh messages to say he won’t be back from Patagonia in time.

Ruth wonders to David and Pip if Azra will keep up the hostilities forever, after a frosty meeting in the shop. David encourages Ruth not to give up, and to take Azra for lunch, which she does. Ruth apologizes again for showing Khalil the photos of the sheep. Although Azra is still annoyed with Ruth, she misses her friend and remembers how welcome Ruth made her feel when she first came to Ambridge. Reunited, they discuss the upcoming wedding.

Ruth asks Usha about Anna’s whereabouts, as she called round to Carol’s cottage over the weekend and Anna didn’t answer. Usha is keen to speak to Anna. Anna is still very angry with Alan, but agrees to a visit from Usha. Alan returning the money won’t be enough for Anna. Every time she tries to convince herself that Alan isn’t a bad person, the facts keep crashing back. Anna can’t believe that in her final days, Carol was betrayed by Alan. Anna’s stunned that Alan would have got involved in Carol’s banking when she’d specifically asked him not to. Usha defends Alan and says he’s not trying to hide anything. Later, Usha tells Ruth that the funeral upset was just a misunderstanding between Anna and Alan.