27/05/2025

Joy reckons the Village Shop customer survey drawn up by Susan and Emma is too comprehensive and offers to cut it down. Susan won’t give way though, before explaining the survey’s purpose to Jazzer. Both him and Joy wax lyrical about a superior shopping experience at Underwoods Local, pushing Susan into agreeing to take a look for herself. Later on, after bumping into Jazzer again, Susan is gobsmacked to discover Clarrie is working there. Clarrie tells Susan most of the village have been in already - and they’re all dead impressed. Susan fears it could be the end of the Village Shop.

Chris is at The Stables trimming some of the horses' hooves. He catches up with Alice and they discuss taking Martha to Peggy’s funeral, agreeing that she should go. They arrange to meet up later over a curry to discuss preparing Martha for the day itself. At lunchtime Alice is joined by Joy at the Playground and they talk about how Alice’s family are coping with Peggy’s death, before comparing notes on the hard times both have been through recently. Joy then prompts Alice, she and Chris have cracked co-parenting, so she doesn’t have to cope with everything on her own, does she? But then Chris phones and tells Alice that Imaani, the nursery manager, has called them in for an unscheduled meeting on Friday to talk about making sure Martha’s school-ready. Chris doesn’t think it signifies much, but Alice is unsettled by it. Later she calls Chris and cancels their catch-up later; there’s things she needs to do at The Stables.