The Archers BBC Radio 4

Neil offers support to a friend, and Kirsty has a secret weapon.

Lily notices a distressed cow stuck in a ditch on her way back from visiting Ruth and calls Ben. Whilst waiting for David to arrive with hoisting equipment, they ring Alistair. They discuss the chaos on the roads caused by the crash on Heydon Bridge. Alistair’s going to have to reach them via the ford. As Alistair starts to wade through it, he feels panicky but succeeds in crossing it. The cow’s successfully rescued and treated, but Ben notices that Alistair’s white as a sheet. Alistair admits he had a minor panic attack in the ford because of the river rescue. Ben’s supportive and offers to drive him back to his car.
When Freddie praises George about his part in the crash rescue, George is dismissive. Freddie remembers how he felt after the Grey Gables explosion and rescuing Lynda - Robert tried to give him his dad’s war medal. George shares he had the same sort of experience with Kenton with the engraved pint glass. They both agree that they didn’t do anything special – most people would have done the same. George wonders whether if he’d been quicker rescuing Fallon, she’d still be pregnant, but Freddie counters that the crash may not be the reason for Fallon’s miscarriage. Anyway, if anyone’s to blame, it’s Alice who may end up in prison. She wouldn’t survive very well there, as Freddie knows from his brutal experience in Young Offenders. George states that he wouldn’t cope in prison either. Freddie surmises that as Alice did the crime, she should do the time.

Fallon and Harrison both agree that it’s great that Fallon’s back at Woodbine Cottage after her stay at The Bull. Harrison’s relieved Alice has gone to London – at least he won’t bump into her.
Ambridge is playing Layton Cross at cricket and Kirsty pops by to wish the team luck on her way to an appointment with Rex’s pigs – she’s looking after them while Rex is away. George and Pat are mildly concerned when Kirsty reckons it’ll be a breeze. They chat about Mick inviting Joy’s daughter Rochelle to her surprise birthday tea on Friday – that’s if Mick can get hold of Rochelle. Later Kirsty rings Jazzer for some advice about Rex’s pigs, but when she asks about a limping boar, Jazzer says she needs to treat him herself and Kirsty wonders what on earth she’s doing!
Everyone’s surprised when Harrison turns up to play cricket. Pat’s not impressed when he rides rough-shod over Tracy’s batting order, reminding them that he is the captain and then starts sledging the opposing team. George mentions that Harrison’s asked him to be vice-captain, but he agrees when Pat says that Tracy would’ve been the obvious choice. Ambridge win the match and Harrison’s celebratory but Pat asks for a quick word. She didn’t think Harrison’s attitude towards Layton Cross was appropriate and thinks Harrison shouldn’t have overlooked Tracy for vice-captain. Harrison retorts that before getting into the bigger decisions, perhaps Pat should look at her bowling. She needs to earn her spot on the team.

Chelsea thinks George is living his best life – what with the free family meal at The Bull tonight as well as Oliver’s magnum of champagne. When George says he hopes things will die down soon, Chelsea doubts it and shows George Fallon ’s post telling the world he’s superman. George spots a comment from the Borchester Echo wanting to do a feature on him, but George isn’t sure.
Alice gets cold feet as she packs to leave for London with Ruairi tomorrow. She doesn’t want to leave Martha, but she doesn’t want Martha to see her in this state. Alice checks if she can still drink when she’s in London and Ruairi agrees, but with some rules including only drinking in Ruairi’s company. In the meantime they decide to get some fresh air and walk Martha’s Shetland pony, Champion.
Chris admits to Tracy that he’s struggling to cope with not only his job and Martha, but also with wondering whether Alice has had a drink or not. When Tracy calls Alice a piece of work, Chris reminds her that alcoholism is an illness. Later Tracy bumps into Ruairi and Alice on their walk, telling Alice that Chris, Martha and everyone else would be better off if she didn’t come back from London.
Later while Alice is reading Martha’s bedtime story, Chris explains to Ruairi that he’d hoped that Alice would go back to rehab – it would be one good thing to come from the accident. When it’s time for Alice to go, Chris says he’ll miss her, and Alice says she’ll miss Martha – and Chris too.

Alistair catches up with Mick to explain why he’s been dragged into Alistair’s alibi about treating a sheep on the night of the crash. Mick explains that he saw Alistair and Denise on the river and put two and two together about their relationship. They saved Mick and Joy’s lives, the least they owe Alistair is a bit of discretion. Alistair asks Mick for help in pinpointing a fictional location for the sheep. It’s a bit of a logistical nightmare and Mick wonders if it might be easier for Alistair to tell Paul the truth. But Alistair says it’s not his truth to tell.
Kenton visits George to present him with an engraved pint glass which will be kept at The Bull for him. Kenton and Jolene think George was really brave to help rescue everyone from the car crash in the river Am. When George bats the praise away, Kenton says he’s also there because he wants George to meet up with Fallon – he thinks it will do her some good. George reluctantly agrees and later Fallon tells George he shouldn’t underestimate what he did, he literally saved Fallon’s life. But afterwards, Fallon comments to Kenton how down George seemed – it’s a lot for a nineteen-year-old to take on. Fallon admits she can’t face being in the house with Harrison yet and asks to stay a bit longer at The Bull. Harrison texts suggesting that they write a nice post about George and Fallon thinks it’s a good idea to be together but focussing on someone else. Anything else is strictly off limits.

Fallon and Jolene chat about Fallon’s forthcoming scan. Fallon admits she’s finding it hard to be in the same room as Harrison, since he told Alice about the miscarriage. She’s never seen Harrison so angry and the crash may not have caused the miscarriage. Just because Harrison was thrilled to discover that Fallon was pregnant, he presumed Fallon felt the same. But Harrison knew she’d never wanted to be a mum. Jolene reminds Fallon that she and Harrison love each other - they must try not to shut each other out.
Things are fractious between Harrison and Fallon on the way back from the scan. Harrison expects Fallon to be as upset as him about the crash and the miscarriage. Fallon explains that although she hates what Alice did, she realises that Alice needs help. Fallon decides to stay over at The Bull to give her and Harrison some space, but they confirm that they love each other. Later Fallon explains to Jolene that Harrison’s behaving like he’s lost a child, but she doesn’t feel like that. She’s sad and bruised, but not grieving.
Adam tells Alice that staying at Honeysuckle Cottage is making things worse; he’s asked Brian to pick her up. But Alice wants to go back to her own house. Ruairi turns up and suggests that he stays at Alice’s. He won’t stop her drinking and will join her if she does. Adam’s incredulous, but Ruairi explains it’s a way of supervising Alice, until she’s ready to get help. Ruairi’s going to suggest Alice stays in London with him. Adam concedes a change of scene may do Alice good.