The Archers

Lilian’s finding arrangements for Peggy’s funeral a good distraction. She notes even though her mum’s no longer with them, her influence can still be felt. Kate and Phoebe update her on the incident with vicar Crispin yesterday, explaining he’s no longer available to officiate. They realise the logical option is to approach Alan. Kate volunteers to call him, and he suggests they chat face to face. Phoebe offers to accompany Kate.

Stella has a meeting with Justin. He’s decided to meet her on Lakey Hill – he wants an overview of Home Farm, both metaphorical and physical. Stella reports on her findings regarding the positives and negatives of the ecology. There are more debits than credits, but Stella observes they were expecting that. It’s a mixed picture, and Justin intends to act on it. He'd like to take BL's land out of food production and rewild the Berrow estate. Stella’s shocked – surely the Board won’t support a halt on producing food? Justin’s pretty confident they will with his persuasion. He’s happy to take the flak. Stella expresses concern for Home Farm but Justin assures her the legal obligations will be fulfilled. This will be his legacy. He wants to leave Ambridge in a better state than when he arrived.

Crispin surprises Alan by arriving unannounced to discuss Peggy’s funeral arrangements. He suggests brightly that Alan should box with him sometime, before pointing out the advantage of him not conducting the funeral is that he’ll be able to immerse himself in the service as a fellow mourner. With the appearance of Kate and Jakob to discuss things further Alan takes his leave – but not before Crispin makes a good natured aside about his motorbike. Crispin familiarises himself with Peggy’s family members before explaining some of the finer points of the service. Kate notices he has a shoulder twinge and offers him a massage to help ease it. Jakob’s dubious but Crispin’s tempted.

The Brookfield contingent are delighted with the attendance at Open Farm Sunday. It’s great to get such support from the community. Stella’s impressed with Pip’s dairy presentation – they agree it’s important for farms to keep doing this. Even Josh’s ‘silage sniffing’ attraction has a healthy queue. They spot some over-enthusiastic youngsters on the yard but it’s nothing they can’t handle. They worry that quiet David’s rattled, but he explains he was just contemplating the four generations he sees – with Rosie as the future. Pip agrees. She’s heard at least two kids today talking about wanting to go into farming. David acknowledges days like today make it all worthwhile, even though he moans now and again. Pip hears that attendance is well down at Bridge Farm, and David has an idea. He grabs a megaphone and delivers a heartfelt speech about how one unfortunate event can blight a farm.

At the Rewilding Justin assures Kirsty that having his expensive Italian shoes ruined is a small price to pay for seeing Lilian laugh again, admitting he can be pretty selfish sometimes. Justin’s pleased the planning for summer rewilding activities is well in hand, but then Tony appears, furious that the Longhorns are being allowed to wander freely without fences, but no-one told him. Kirsty and Justin smooth Tony’s hackles, assuring him they did tell him, then show him the GPS app they’ve had installed to keep track of the cattle. Tony still feels he’s been left out of the loop. Treading on eggshells around Tony’s grief Justin explains it wasn’t deliberate and Kirsty apologises, before Tony heads off to organise the Goat Gymkhana. Justin then admits to Kirsty he’s planning something but won’t say what it is.

Ben finds Susan at the Shop struggling under a mountain of deliveries and helps her clear some space for customers. The deliveries are part of Susan’s initiative to expand the Shop’s range of products, but it looks like it’ll be a struggle to put new shelves up and fit everything in before Joy’s next shift on Saturday. Then Joy turns up, dismayed to find the stock room full and boxes all over the place. Susan tries to sell Akram some screws and is delighted she can offer him a mallet, before he starts revelling in the cornucopia of hardware items Susan has ordered. Susan’s convinced everything’s going to be fine now.

When Justin tells Lilian he’s changed his mind about going on a months-long cruise she replies that it’s too late, she’s committed to staying in Ambridge, looking out for Alice, Tony, the Stables and The Bull. Lilian wonders why Justin’s made a U-turn. He can’t exactly say why, but the meeting with Arthur has prompted thoughts about looking after one another as they get older. Justin fancies doing some good in the world, taking Arthur as his example. They go to see Kirsty at the Rewilding, wanting to talk about the art installation Peggy’s donation will be funding. They’re looking for something to attract more visitors, but not too many. While visiting the pond Lilian recalls a childhood game and pushes Justin in. Luckily he sees the funny side and ends up laughing with Lilian and Kirsty, imagining Peggy looking down and laughing too.

While doing some gardening at the Dower House Lilian and Justin agree it was a clever plan of Peggy’s to get Natasha and Fallon working together for her funeral. They were at Harrison’s party last night too, which was a great success, despite his absence. Lilian then gets a message from Christine at the Laurels: they want to talk to her about Peggy. Intrigued, Justin goes with Lilian, joking that they’re about to find out what Peggy did with her money. A regular visitor to The Laurels, Arthur, introduces himself as a good friend of Peggy’s. He tells Lilian that the charity where he volunteers, a local dementia support network, is very grateful for Peggy’s generous donation. Arthur suffers from dementia himself, although it isn’t obvious, and impresses Justin with his Savile Row background. Justin and Lilian agree, he’s an inspiring example and that Peggy made absolutely the right decision. And of course Arthur should come to Peggy’s funeral.

Ruth asks Ben to tidy up the Events Barn – Fallon will be setting up there from tomorrow to serve teas on Sunday. Ruth then asks Ben what he knows about catastrophising. She thinks it’s what David’s doing about Sunday - only she knows David would hate her even mentioning it. Later, David finds Ben and asks him to put everything back that he’s just cleared out of the Barn. Ben broaches the subject of how David’s feeling, but David shuts down the conversation. Later though he tells Ben he appreciates his support, but actually he’s okay now and excited about Sunday. They’re both really glad it wasn’t cancelled.

Having decided to go ahead with Open Farm Sunday, David and Ruth have been working hard to get things ready at Brookfield and are still checking up with each other about the various events booked for the day. Jill wants David to look over the eulogy she’s written for Peggy’s funeral and Ruth wonders what happened to all Peggy’s money. Jill then asks David if he will read the eulogy during the service, before he reads it out loud. Jill has written that after arriving in Ambridge in 1957 she and Peggy were friends for sixty-eight years. And it was Peggy who helped make her feel that one day she might belong in Ambridge. She valued Peggy’s honesty and straight talking and will miss her more than she can say. When David finishes Ruth proposes a toast to Peggy.

Alice and Chris meet on the way to Harrison’s surprise party at Woodbine Cottage, neither of them in the mood for it. When they get there Fallon quickly has them helping with last-minute preparations. Kirsty is there too, while Dane, on his second date with Helen, is reportedly looking forward to some karaoke, with Fallon having bought Harrison a karaoke machine. Kirsty thinks Chris and Alice are a bit on edge, while Fallon frets over Harrison not being there yet. And then she tells everyone that Harrison’s had to turn around and go back to Yorkshire! Fallon despairs. How can she have a fortieth birthday party for Harrison without him?

At Brookfield, David’s talking through the events they’ve planned for Open Farm Sunday. Ruth senses how concerned he is about security, even though they’ve got Rex, Ed and Will keeping an eye on things. While Ruth mulls over the details of the day and possibly having more “fun” events, David suggests a bag search on the gate, then admits he’s having flashbacks to what happened in the boardroom at Casey Meats and can’t help projecting his fears onto Open Farm Sunday. He wishes he'd been more proactive, despite everyone saying how fantastic he was, keeping people calm. Ruth sits David down with a coffee and does her best to reassure him, before suggesting it might be better to cancel Open Farm Sunday if it’s causing him so much anxiety.

Joy gives Susan the latest batch of Shop surveys, while Ben is asked what he’d like them to change. Joy suggests letting dogs in, but Susan’s not keen, preferring Azra’s idea of introducing a hardware section. Later, Ben catches up with Joy, grateful to her for remembering when he broke down at the Shop over Bess, knowing that’s why she suggested allowing dogs. Joy admits the guilt she feels over Rochelle turning out the way she has, but Ben reminds Joy of the role she played in his recovery – their conversation on the Green that day was a turning point for him. He’s certain something similar could happen to Rochelle.

Alice has brought Martha to Chris’s flat, where he’s planned a day in and around Ambridge, inviting Alice to join them at the playground. Alice wants to talk about the effect her drinking during pregnancy had on Martha’s development. Chris thinks it’s a massive leap, but Alice has been dreading the thought of foetal alcohol syndrome for years and the nursery visit on Friday hasn't helped. At the playground later Chris tries convincing Alice there’s nothing wrong with Martha, but she wants to see a doctor as soon as possible. Chris worries she’s torturing herself unnecessarily, while Alice suggests he’s more worried she’ll start drinking again. When Susan approaches they’re happy to talk about letting dogs in the shop instead. Afterwards Chris says he’ll go to the doctors with Alice, who’s really grateful. She wouldn’t blame Chris for hating her after what she’s done to Martha.