The Archers

As Susan and Joy prepare for tonight’s big celebration of the shop re-opening, Joy hopes plenty of customers turn up. The marquee provided by Justin looks magical. Martyn comes in to help carry provisions and admires the newly refurbished shop. Ed and Emma arrive with Susan’s surprise celebration cake, and Joy declares it perfect. Emma receives a text from Keira wondering when they’ll be home. She tells Ed she’ll call Keira; she and George had another row this afternoon. She’s worried about both of them. When there’s no reply Ed nips home. He reports that Keira was tearful but won’t talk about it. They observe wryly that with two kids, things will never feel easy. Martyn’s enjoying being at the heart of a village event – it can get lonely living on your own. He offers Chris a listening ear. He’s pleased Chris is moving back in with his parents – it’ll give him time to get over Carly. Chris assures him there isn’t much to get over. It was finished before it really began. Martyn advises getting right back out there – no negative self-talk! Chris escapes but not before Martyn insists on a drink tomorrow, so that he can impart more of the excellent life-coaching advice he’s had from Chelsea and Zainab. Full of generosity he asserts he’ll be making a donation at the tractor run, declaring to Joy that giving to a worthy cause puts one’s own troubles into perspective. Delighted with her cake, Susan makes a rousing speech giving thanks for village life, community and their wonderful new shop.

David has concerns for a loved one, and Jazzer finds himself the subject of ridicule.

Whilst packing vegetables Tom gives disgruntled Tony the bad news that he can’t drive Tony’s vintage Fordson in the tractor run as he’ll be setting off for Wales with Natasha and the twins early on Christmas Eve. When Helen arrives Tom wonders who’s in the worse mood, Pat or Tony. Then Tony takes Tom to task for letting him down at such short notice, backed up by Helen. Tom gets very defensive, blaming anyone but himself. When Pat walks in she too can’t believe Tom didn’t realise he wouldn’t be available, but offers to drive the Fordson instead. Tony gets upset about people not being there on Christmas Eve to decorate the Christmas tree, declaring that maybe they shouldn’t bother with it at all this year. Discussing the tractor run with Tony, Joy praises Tony and Pat’s resilience at a difficult time, and they end up swapping notes about family Christmases. But Tony resents the suggestion that he’s locking himself away with his tractor. Esme comes to Bridge Farm for some farming advice from Pat. On a tour she admires the sustainability of the planting, before asking about Helen’s dairy operation and how they dealt with the sewage leak. Pat suggests Esme comes back again tomorrow. Esme can’t because she’s driving to South Wales in pursuit of silage. So Pat takes her to see the Montbeliardes, where Esme opens up about the problems she’s facing just to keep going. Pat offers sisterly support – women farmers need to look out for each other whenever they can.

Eddie drops in on Jazzer and Tracy to flog one of his turkeys, but they tell him they can’t afford it, even with a family discount. Eddie then details how he’s cobbling together a turkey outfit for the Christmas market, but what he really needs is an assistant to help drum up sales. So, in return for a Grundy turkey, Tracy nominates Jazzer to give up his day off on Wednesday to be Eddie’s assistant. When Susan and Chris step inside the Village Shop for the first time since the repairs have been completed they can’t believe how perfect everything is. Susan reckons they should be ready for a party there on Thursday, then re-open on Friday. However, when they go upstairs the flat is a complete mess with most of the work unfinished. Chris despairs of the flat being ready for him to move back in before Christmas, ruining all his plans with Carly. With Harrison returning next week, he can’t stay on with Fallon either. Later, Chris tells Susan that Hazel was furious when he told her, but she did fall out with the builders, so that’s probably why they left it unfinished. Then to cap it all, when Chris phoned Carly, she told him she’s been invited on holiday with her ex and their kids, plus they’re going to try couples counselling again. So, it’s all over between Chris and Carly. Susan’s sympathetic, though at least she’ll be able to spoil Chris over Christmas. But that’s not really what Chris is looking for at his age…

David catches up with Esme at Meadow Farm, pleased to hear she’s settling into Ambridge life, having watched the Christmas lights switch-on and been introduced to half the village by Akram. Esme’s getting to grips with looking after her cows too, but with finances still tight she’s keen to get David’s advice on sourcing extra silage. Later, Ben and David look forward to Shula joining the family for Christmas, before Esme phones and David has an idea to help raise money for the silage: getting Josh to sell some old farm machinery that’s lying in one of Esme’s barns. But when they look at what’s there they’re not hopeful it will raise much, though Ben takes some pictures anyway. The farmer Esme is talking to is based in South Wales and she thinks her best bet of getting a good deal on the silage is to go and see him. Ben suggests Josh could go with her and catch his girlfriend Nina, who’s playing a gig in Cardiff, at the same time. Grateful Clarrie and Eddie have brought Pat some treats after she helped with last week’s turkey plucking. They compare notes on what a hard year it’s been, but look forward to a new farming year, and the Christmas tractor run. Later though, Clarrie wonders to Eddie if Pat’s okay, as she seemed a bit off-colour. Eddie’s more interested in getting Clarrie to make him a turkey costume he can wear at the Christmas market on Wednesday, but Clarrie tells him there’s no chance.