Episode Guide S2 :: HE Bates

Episode 1

Bad Neighbours. (Air Date: Sunday 16th October 2022)

Primrose falls in love again, this time with the handsome new vicar. Just as Pop is finally getting round to Bluff Court’s demolition, up pop city slickers, the Jerebohms, with more money than sense looking to become Lords of the Manor, or Littlehampton at the very least. Pop seals the deal and doubles his money on amount he paid for the property. Feeling duped, the Jerebohms try and fail to get a partial refund and so declare all out war. Failure must be in the air as the Normans try to ingratiate themselves with the newcomers, the Larkin children try to make friends with their Jerebohm peers and Primrose asks the dishy young Rev. Candy on a date, with rebuffs all round! We learn there are folks worse than even the Normans and that the new vicar actually has a moral compass!

Episode 2

The Trap. (Air Date: Sunday 23rd October 2022)

More rebuffing this week; Primrose’s attempt at securing a job at the local rag is given the short-shrift. The Normans and Jerebohms find common ground in their desire to discredit the Larkins and come up with a dastardly plan. In contrast Pop and Ma decide to invite them to a barbecue in the hope of mending bridges. Primrose takes the opportunity to also invite Reverend Candy in an effort to make him notice her. She also eventually gets an article published in The Mid-Kent Times and her first job to boot, admittedly with the helping hand of Ma. Pinkie meanwhile plays the down-trodden wife and lays a trap for Pop which finds him breaking into Bluff Court and standing next to an empty safe with a bag full of cash just as PC Harness is checking out reports of a burglary. We learn that Johnny Delamere is "prone to loose bowels before a performance" and that Vicar’s vices now include shoplifting.

Episode 3

Love and Violence. (Air Date: Sunday 30th October 2022)

After an absence of almost a decade, Littlechurch welcomes the return of Pear’s travelling funfair, owned and run by Pop’s friend ‘Fruity’. Feeling nostalgic, Pop offers to buy the attraction when he learns ‘Fruity’ is thinking of packing it in. Trouble comes in the shape of a group of Teddy Boys (and Girls) but are seen off by the throwing arm of Edith Pilchester in the first instance and the upper cut of Rev. Candy in the second! Primrose finds her first day at work entails making endless cups of tea for the other staff until she has a brainwave. The rest of the Larkin children meanwhile have a showdown with their Jerebohm counterparts and continue the family tradition of using strawberries as an offensive weapon. We learn that ‘The Pilch’ is a crack shot, that Reverend Candy can tell a porker that 'old' vicar would be proud of, and that "cold gravy is the work of Satan".

Episode 4

Wheels of Justice. (Air Date: Sunday 13th November 2022)

After a weeks hiatus, rebuffing is back - this week its PC Harness’s turn, not once but twice, first when his pleas to Pauline to reconsider ending their relationship fall on deaf ears and then when he asks Libby out on a date in an attempt to make Pauline jealous! Pop’s day in court has arrived and he’s decided to represent himself, with the odds very much against him as the Jerebohms have secured the services of a top prosecution lawyer. What with the Pinkie and Alec both lying under oath, coupled with the poor performance of his character witnesses, Pop doesn’t stand a chance. Still, the Larkins don’t go down without a fight and even though Pop is found guilty and given a one year prison sentence the family vow to clear his name. In this episode we learn a slew of names - Sidney Charles (Pop) Larkin, Phyllis May (Pinkie) Jerebohm and Headley (Harness) - who knew!

Episode 5

Pop in Prison. (Air Date: Sunday 20th November 2022)

Ma’s turn to be rebuffed this week. She pays the magistrate a visit to lodge an appeal, but is refused despite having pertinent information gathered by Primrose and solid evidence supplied by Berndt, the Jerebohms chauffeur. Cuthbert and Pinkie are not quite as squeaky clean as they make out, in fact they have more than a few skeletons in their closet. The magistrate it turns out is under threat of blackmail from Pinkie for past misdemeanours, and just when it seems all is lost, a crisis of conscience from no less than Norma Norman may help save the day. We learn that Mariette is pregnant, that none of the Larkin children have been baptised and that bad feelings are another thing that "don’t butter no parsnips”.

Episode 6

Vengeance. (Air Date: Sunday 27th November 2022)

Alec is on the receiving end of this week’s rebuff, from none other than his wife. The Dean stops by to inform Vicar that he is being posted to a new parish. Fearing his years of living a carefree life are about to come to an end, he throws out Rev. Candy and barricades himself in the vicarage in protest. Norma meanwhile spills the beans about Pinkie nobbling the magistrate to Ma, who in turn devises a ruse to secure a confession with the aid of PC Harness and a microphone in a plant pot. With Pinkie’s incriminating conversation on tape, Ma once again approaches the magistrate and insists he pardon Pop and resign thereafter. Free at last, Pop gives the Jerebohms a choice, sell Bluff Court back to him at a bargain price and leave the village forever or prepare to face the law. We learn that Tulip McFarbley is Primrose’s nom de plume but remain none the wiser about Vicar's actual name!

A charming escape into H.E. Bates's bucolic fantasy

- Anita Singh, The Telegraph