Episode 3689 (17th March 2004)

Plot
Nursing a hangover after a boozy night out with Rodney, Val begins to find juggling two men at once hard work when she runs into both Danny and Rodney in the shop. She tells Danny that she was out with a friend the night before but Rodney makes it obvious that they spent the evening together. Recovering from her hangover rapidly Val pinches two bottles of wine from the pub and spends a drunken afternoon telling Siobhan about the men in her life. She later turns up at Rodney’s and tells him that she loves him, like she did when she was 19 and he was married to her sister. News that Syd hit Chloe spreads like wildfire around the village, mostly thanks to Viv, and Chloe laps up the attention. When Siobhan pops round to pick up some of Chloe’s clothes, Syd tells her that he didn’t hit Chloe, but even Siobhan finds this hard to believe. When Syd later confronts Chloe in the pub she refuses to admit that he didn’t hit her. Chas is the only person in The Woolpack who takes Syd’s side and tells everyone in the pub that they should be ashamed of themselves for believing a liar like Chloe. Emily continues her visits to Marlon who remains holed up in the attic at Holdgate Farm. She reads him David Copperfield and he is happy for her to read to him but he’s not ready to come out yet, even when Emily tells him that his family send their love. Emily’s hopes are raised that Marlon might be feeling more positive about things when he asks her to bring him some writing paper and a pen next time she visits.