22/09/2025

When Justin encounters Brian on the Village Green they swap barbs over what happened at the Harvest Festival, before Justin suggests Brian could do some sort of penance. Brian wonders whether Justin’s equally keen to clear his conscience.

At St Stephen’s Leonard asks Alan if he’s recovered from nearly poisoning himself at the Flower and Produce Show. Alan’s just grateful he had qualified doctor Azra with him. Susan then asks Alan about the quality of forgiveness, especially when the wrongdoer hasn’t been forgiven. Justin comes in, suggesting he could pay for repairs to the church or whatever Alan thinks best. When Brian joins them he and Justin try to outdo each other in their magnanimity. But Alan doesn’t want their money, suggesting they come to Bible Study group instead. Brian, Justin and Susan then receive a salutary lesson in putting forgiveness and reconciliation above all other considerations.

In the graveyard Leonard finds Jill by Grace Archer’s headstone, on the seventieth anniversary of her death. Jill knows Phil marked the date every year, regretting the jealousy she felt towards Grace. Thanks to Leonard she now understands you can have room in your heart for more than one person. When Brian and Justin emerge from church they tell Leonard they’ve made up their differences. The reconciliation doesn’t last though, as Justin points out the price Brian’s paid for allowing his temper to get the better of him: he’s driven his business off a cliff. And whilst Justin isn’t one for quoting scripture, maybe Brian should think about removing the ‘log in his eye’ before judging anyone else.