Et Tu, Jenny?

Angela Piper and Charles Collingwood (Jennifer and Brian Aldridge)

It was a difficult week for Brian. It started badly, with Brian finding out that the BL board is debating whether or not to review the contract with Home Farm, in the light of the continuing fuss about the contamination. The threat is real - Justin says that, if it comes to a vote, Brian might well lose. Home Farm desperately needs the income from the contract; what can they do?

Jennifer says that he will have to call a Farm Partnership meeting and she feels that he should be straight with Rooooth. Reluctantly, Brian agrees that he doesn’t have much choice. And so he does so, asking her to keep it to herself. His motive, he tells her, is because he is concerned for his children’s futures, plus, Rooooth is in the partnership to represent Ruairi’s interests and how can these be best served by Brian going to jail? Is Rooooth going to report him to the EA? “No, of course not” she replies and Brian exhorts her once again to tell nobody - not even David.

The Partnership meeting takes place on Wednesday and Brian outlines the threat to the BL contract. However, he has a cunning plan; he can resign as BL chairman and they can put the contracting out to a new company, headed by Adam. That way, Home Farm is airbrushed from the scene. Rooooth is uncomfortable that the other partners are not aware of the whole story and asks to talk to Brian and Jen alone. Rooooth thinks they should be honest with the others and Jenny backs her up.

To a man (and two women) the children take it extremely badly, heaping vitriol on Brian’s head. Alice is particularly outspoken and Adam says that he needs to talk to Debbie. Brian is keen to have a strategy in place before the BL board meeting next week, but Adam won’t be rushed. “Make no mistake Brian,” says his stepson, “this changes everything.”

Thursday sees Kate “contemplating the ruin of my future” as she tells her mother. Spiritual Home has never been so quiet and Brian spent a long time trying to justify his actions. Kate also has a go at Jenny for keeping quiet and Jen retaliates by saying that Kate hasn’t always been honest with her children. Kate waves this away and says that, despite the hurt she is feeling, she is coming round to Brian’s point of view - it might be better to keep quiet and let Brian do things his way.

On Friday, Brian badgers Adam - what has Debbie said? Adam replies that he hasn’t been able to get in touch yet, but she’ll ring him later. She does so and the Aldridges meet to talk over the situation. Jen says Alice will be late, but she has changed her mind and now agrees with Brian’s cunning plans, as does Kate. Brian is triumphant. “Daddy’s girls” says Adam, scornfully. Adam says that Debbie agrees with him, as does Rooooth. Debbie agrees with Adam that Brian is the problem and his plan to resign as BL chairman doesn’t go far enough - the time has come for him to retire and give up all work on Home Farm. Brian is aghast and says they can’t get rid of him as it’s his farm, but Jenny says, technically it isn’t; it belongs to the partnership.

Brian doesn’t care - with his shares, Jenny’s, Alice’s and Kate’s, he has a majority. And then Jenny drops her bombshell; she agrees with Adam, Debbie and Rooooth and her shares give them the majority - it’s time that Brian stepped aside from the farm. He is dismayed, saying “No Jenny; you can’t do this to me - you can’t!”

More grief for the Grundys - Clarrie is called away to pick up Poppy from nursery, as Will is stuck in traffic. The trouble is that Poppy thinks that her dad has abandoned her, just like mother. Will beats himself up for letting her down and Clarrie suggests getting a carer in, but Will won’t have it - Poppy is confused enough as it is. Clarrie has another idea; Will and Poppy can come and live at Grange Farm. Jake and Mia will be back at the weekend and there will always be someone there to look after Poppy. If she’s really unlucky, it could be Joe.

In the end, Will agrees and, on Friday, he comes across Ed sitting on his own. Will is going to leave, but Ed persuades him to sit down and have a beer and the two brothers have their first real conversation for years. Will has another beer and it becomes apparent that he has a secret. That secret is that it was indeed Nic that ran Matt over - she was distracted by Poppy being sick and hit him.

When she got home, Nic was hysterical and told Will what she’d done. He went to have a look, but turned back when he saw the blue flashing lights of the police and ambulance. He examined the car and washed off the evidence of the collision. Nic was angry and wanted to phone the police, but Will wouldn’t let her. Ed is having trouble taking this in and says quietly “what if Matt had died?” “Well, he didn’t, did he?” Will points out, adding that, if anyone had been charged, Nic would have owned up. Ed doesn’t know what to say, but Will tells him that he wouldn’t have done anything differently and he doesn’t feel guilty in the slightest. The question is will Ed be able to keep this news to himself, or will Will feel the need to unburden himself to other members of the family? Best to let sleeping Nics lie is my advice Will.

Susan is feeling increasingly put upon. On top of her work in the Dairy and her responsibilities as Kefir Czar, Helen keeps roping her and Clarrie in to work at Helen’s cheese-making classes. Sterilising everything, washing up and answering a string of inane questions means that she doesn’t have a moment to herself. The icing on the cake came when Sabrina Thwaite referred to Susan as ‘cheese monitor’.

Susan has a good old moan to Neil and doesn’t care that she owes £5 to Alan’s moaning fund. Neil has an answer; he is now earning good money at Berrow, so why doesn’t Susan give up work and retire? She is horrified “What would I do all day?” she asks. Let’s see. Moan, spread rumours, run people down (verbally, not like Nic) and gossip - pretty much what she does now, in fact, although she is paid for it at the moment.

Talking of Alan’s ‘Pay if you moan’ fund, I reckon he’ll soon be able to get Westminster Abbey relocated to Ambridge - he must be awash with money. Lynda has been persuaded by Robert to add Tolkein to her reading list and, when she says that she cannot face the thought of tackling Lord of the Rings, he suggests The Silmarillion as an easier read. She attempts it, but is finding it increasingly difficult and she reckons it’s a load of badly-written garbage with no plot. Robert reminds her of the Moan fund and she puts a £20 note on the table and lets Tolkein have it with both barrels. Her rant complete, Lynda says that she feels much better now. If Robert had persuaded her to read Lord of the Rings, Alan might have been able to buy St Paul’s as well.

The Shula and Alistair story trundles on. Jill is convinced that Shula is avoiding her and asks Alan if he has seen her at the Palm Sunday service. Let’s think for a moment - every Palm Sunday, Shula brings Benjamin the donkey along to the church for the service (he performed impeccably this year, you’ll be pleased to know). I know that Jill had her cataracts done a while ago, so surely she must be able to see this woman holding a donkey in church? It shouldn’t be too hard to join the dots.

The latest person to get an earful (actually two earfuls) is Philip Moss. He turns up at The Stables, looking for Shula, as there is work needing doing. She’s not there, but Alistair is and tells Philip all about what’s going on. Philip suggests a pint in The Bull later and Alistair agrees. Philip has been through a divorce and he tells Alistair that he really should tell Jim what’s happening. Alistair keeps going over recent events - he never realised something was wrong and Shula’s actions were a shock. How can he deal with life without her?

Philip’s second earful happens later in the week while working at The Stables and Shula invites him in for lunch. Philip is up front about his drink with Alistair and he must be considering a change of career as an Agony Aunt when Shula starts bending his ear. She confides that she is worried about Daniel’s reaction, but Philip says that his son took the news of his parents’ divorce much better that he expected. Philip has been there, done that.

Shula is pleased that Alistair confided in Philip; here she is, with relatives around every corner, while Alistair only has Jim - a thought that probably has Alistair sobbing into his pillow and wondering if it’s worthwhile going on… Shula is pleased that Philip seems to understand and she tells him that she just can’t keep on pretending any longer. Truly there is no such thing as a free lunch, Philip.

What else has happened? We had Jenny talking about Lexi’s menstrual cycle at the breakfast table and Lexi got a job at the chicken factory, not that these two items are connected. Lexi went round the village looking for a job, because she’s always worked and is getting bored. Roy and Lynda are horrified when she tells them, but she says a job is a job.

Neil thinks that Rex has the makings of a decent pig man - he’s intelligent and doesn’t have to be told things twice. Neil is looking forward to seeing the pigs back at Hollowtree, as that was where Neil began his farming career, as Phil Archer’s pig man.

Finally, when Helen and Pat were having a catch up near the beginning of the week (always a good ploy so that we are brought up to date with current stories) we learn that the Kirsty/Philip relationship is still going strong and Pat muses that she wishes Tom could find somebody. We are also told that Tom is perfectly OK with the Kirsty/Phil situation, to which I would point out that it is really sod all to do with him and they certainly don’t need his permission, nor his approval.