A lot has happened in a month for Vicky and Mike. Vicky couldn’t contain her excitement over the news, announcing it at Phoebe’s coming home party. Everyone seemed to take it very well - I was expecting a lot more shock and gossip, but we didn’t really hear any of that. (In fact, when Lynda learned of the news, she was incredibly supportive, beautifully so!)

Instead, the focus of the storyline has been on less flippant things. Vicky was plunged into despair upon hearing that she may have an increased chance of a baby with Down’s Syndrome… which then was confirmed. It’s a topic I have absolutely no right to talk of, except to say the acting was superb throughout. The confusion, the fear, the determination, the yo-yo of emotions, all played out perfectly.

It seems disrespectful to talk of other things, but there has been more happening in Ambridge in August.

You can call me Shirley

Matt’s determined to get a nice elderly couple out of their house so that he can sell it. Everyone around him thinks this is a mean-spirited and generally bad idea, but Matt has no time for sentimentality. He puts the pressure on Darrell to get the couple out - I’m not sure why it is suddenly Darrell’s problem, isn’t he just a builder? Anyway, eventually Lillian finds out. There’s bound to be trouble then!

One of the main reasons Matt has any hold over his builder friend is money, with Darrell’s daughter Rosa getting a new scooter. She’s been whizzing around all over the place on that thing, stealing Jamie away from his girlfriend and almost stalking him around the village. Maybe if Darrell knew that, he would be less bothered about losing the cash!

Adam’s decision

Adam does the dirty on Ian with Pawel. Well, it was clear that something was going to happen but I hadn’t anticipated that! The horror of it all! He returned to Ian all guilt-ridden but there’s no hint of coming clean about it. He finally decides to stick around in Ambridge, after pondering the idea of going travelling again, and he even tells Brian he’ll do the required for the new mega-dairy.

In the end, there are just two things that stuck with me - the fact that the one-night-stand has gone unrevealed for now. This would never happen in Eastenders, but it’s early days yet! Secondly, Jennifer’s meddling. She actually drives me loopy.

Other bits and pieces

All this talk of dodgy road-kill burgers put me right off, but it was fun hearing Eddie’s plotting. Is there any end to his ability to scheme something out of nothing? Eventually, he was outed on the local radio by a shock jock. A taste of his own medicine, perhaps? Or his own burger, I guess would be more fitting.

Rhys has not been particularly friendly to Fallon in the pub - it’s hard to tell whether they are supposed to be flirting in a love/hate kind of way, or if he really is just that annoying. It’s a weird dynamic amongst that group now that Harry has gone, although he did come back for a brief appearance.

The Brookfield thugs have pleaded guilty so there’s room for a party for everyone. In other farming news, Ed’s cows have been racking up the vet’s bills, and Emma is worrying about not having enough money to… well, to do anything. She can’t even afford new shoes for the kids. I’m not belittling the problem, but “new shoes for the kids” is such a cliché!

Finally, in Ambridge Extra it was more of the same. A stranger from the past called Lance appeared, Jolene had a hard time visiting Sid’s memorial and an unsympathetic Lucy, and then found out some unwanted things from Kenton’s past, while he was oblivious to almost everything. The music seems to be playing a bigger role in the episodes this time, did the writers not come up with enough material?