'Sandra's Grotto'

Heston is determined to make Lily laugh today to prove a point that he can amuse her. Lily knows Heston is starting to get under her skin and she feels she can’t afford to let her emotional guard down. For her, this challenge comes to symbolise much more. If she laughs today, she might lose all her carefully assembled self-control forever.

Fortunately for her, Heston’s initial attempts are lame. Rubbish limericks for a start but his attempts become more sophisticated. He’s brought in a bumble bee fancy dress costume, but he gets in the way of a patient who sees his actions as childish and unprofessional. His acts become more daring – staff in the practice gradually notice what’s happening and get in on the act and eventually, Lily finds them harder to resist.

When Lily starts laughing she just can’t stop and for the first time we see Lily living in the moment – she looks captivatingly beautiful and we can see exactly what Heston sees in her.

Meanwhile, Kay Harkness (35) is a bolshie, sharp-elbowed middle-class parent who devotes the bulk of her energy and enthusiasm to her estate-agency business with little real time for her family. Her daughter Amelia has a bug and she appears to not have the time to care for her.

At the surgery, George indicated that she is suffering from a 24hr bug and that it should soon settle. Angered that there is no medication that can help her and advised that a few days rest and to rehydrate her is the best option, Kay leaves the surgery abruptly. George tends to her next patient Sandra Greenhill (62), Kay’s next door neighbour.

George discovers that she’s gradually let her personal and domestic hygiene slip. Kay asks her husband to care for Amelia but is livid that he can’t get away from work; she’s got her own work to concentrate on! Kay rushes back to the surgery, fired up by rubbish she’s noticed in her neighbour Sandra’s garden which she believes may be causing a rat problem which in turn could be why Amelia’s ill. She rudely confronts Sandra at the surgery and explains her theory to George and Lily.

Lily tends to Amelia and backs up George’s diagnosis but Kay is still fuming and wants to take her to a private doctor! She’s infuriated even further about this practise functioning properly when she sees Heston in a bumble bee costume who is trying to amuse Lily! Sandra hastily returns home upset at the thought that she is to blame for Amelia’s health but forgets her shopping.

Heston tries to calm Kay down but doesn’t get anywhere. Suspicious, George returns Sandra’s shopping; a chance to see Sandra’s home for herself. She observes the clutter first hand, rats and all. Sandra finally confesses that since the death of her mother she’s begun to hoard things, to the point she is becoming a health hazard to herself and others. She would never intentionally hurt anyone! George’s work is done as Sandra realises that she needs help, whereas Kay on the other hand, returned to the surgery to get her scarf, only to see Heston up to his amusing tricks.

When she arrives home George is just leaving Sandra’s. George asks if she managed to get a second opinion for Amelia, but she just raises her nose to the air, defeated that George was right in the first place!