The Archers

Fallon’s working a shift at The Bull while Jolene laments the fact Lynda’s not putting on a Christmas show. Fallon hopes people won’t pry into why she’s working there, but Jolene reassures Fallon she made the right decision to give up the Charging Station Café. Justin is sympathetic that it didn’t work out for Fallon, cautioning her not to go back to the Tearoom, but to look forward instead. He mentions his bankruptcy, suggesting it was the making of him, having to start afresh. He offers to help Fallon if he can and she appreciates him taking her more seriously as a businesswoman than she does herself. Fallon then decides she won’t go back to her old job and Jolene agrees, she can do much better than that. At Beechwood Helen has Tom and Natasha over for dinner. They reflect on a happy day, celebrating Peggy’s 100th birthday. Seren and Nova were particularly charming. They share a moment, remembering their brother, John, then mention Emma being upset this morning after George let it be known he doesn’t ever want his family to visit him again. Helen then explains how difficult it would be for her to afford the mortgage on Kirsty’s house and Natasha tells her not to take the risk, in that case. Later, going home, Natasha suggests to Tom that if Helen doesn’t go for the Beechwood house they could buy it instead. Tom’s not keen, for several reasons, including upsetting Helen, but Natasha concludes that Helen doesn’t really want to live there, whereas she does.

On their way to Handale Prison Neil and Susan are both feeling nervous, but pleased George has agreed to see them. When they get there though George is bitter and distant, seemingly more concerned about what other prisoners will think if he’s too friendly with his grandparents. Neil and Susan struggle finding a subject George doesn’t twist into an angry response. When Neil raises how worried they are about bad influences on him, George makes it clear he only invited them out of pity and wants them to go. Neil then has a go at George about how much it has cost Susan in particular coming on this visit, but George responds by guilt tripping them over what could happen to him in prison - and it will be all their fault. On their way home Neil and Susan admit the visit was awful and George was horrible. They wonder what they’re going to tell Emma, who texts, then rings. They consider glossing over the whole experience, but in the end it might be better to just tell Emma the truth.At Bridge Farm Pat and Tony are pleased with the handsome new buck that’s arrived, hopeful that serious Henry won’t turn out anything like George. When Pat expresses her frustration that Helen hasn’t just gone ahead and bought Kirsty’s Beechwood house Tony tells her about his idea of building an eco-house. He admits they’d have to okay everything with Helen, Tom and Natasha, but Pat thinks they’re too old to make such a big change. However, Tony isn’t giving up on his dream just yet.

At Bridge Farm, Tom and Tony talk about Neil and Susan visiting George tomorrow, plus the imminent arrival of the buck goat and how expensive it must be. Pat joins them, worrying about her promise to bake the cake for Peggy’s 100th birthday today. Pat then confesses the goat cost £750, which is why she didn’t want to tell Tony, who’s suitably appalled. Once Pat’s gone Tony tells Tom about his dream of building an eco-house, which leads onto the idea of Helen potentially moving into the farmhouse. How would Tom and Natasha feel about that? Tony worries about Tom feeling it would be unfair. Tom admits it’s not something he’s thought about, but finds it amusing Tony hasn’t even mentioned the eco-house idea to Pat yet. Tony makes the excuse that there have been so many other things to think about. Chatting to Helen at Beechwood Kirsty bemoans her poor choice of men in her life. Her mum, Megan, keeps pushing her towards Rex, but Kirsty has never been interested in him. However it has made her look at him in a slightly different light. The conversation turns to Helen buying Kirsty’s house, but Helen says it will only be possible if Kirsty drops the price. Kirsty can’t though, as the pressure is now on for her to buy Willow Farm before Brenda sells it to someone else. Helen’s uneasy with rushing into such an important decision affecting Henry and Jack’s future happiness. But Kirsty won’t let her off the hook. The boys love the house and she desperately needs to sell, so what’s Helen waiting for?

Rex calls Kirsty to the Rewilding site to discuss their future, following Justin’s volte face over funding. What will they do now the land and money has been guaranteed for five years? Rex’s left-field idea is beavers, to encourage biodiversity and provide a natural defence against flooding. Kirsty suggests talking to Tony, their farming consultant. Later, when Rex puts the case for introducing beavers to the local environment, Tony reckons they’d need to convince the whole of Ambridge about the benefits, particularly farmers suffering poor crop yields as a result of standing water over the last year. Rex admits there would be considerable costs involved, but argues the benefits would outweigh these in the longer term. Tony is basically for it, but wants another meeting once Rex has done more research to build his case. Kirsty’s already convinced, though. Rex could sell her anything with his passion. At Ambridge View Emma tells Susan how bad she feels about Fallon, after taking her job - and about George, especially now she’s seen him in prison. Emma’s scared about the influence other prisoners could have on George, but Susan thinks George still has a good heart. Later, they both talk to Neil about how upsetting it is that George doesn’t want to see his grandparents and what they can do to protect him from bad influences while he’s inside. Neil then puts in another request to visit George, reports back later that he got a holding message in reply, but at least it wasn’t a flat refusal like last time. They’re both desperate to see him, whatever it takes.