Seasons & episodes

It's the morning after the night before. Alan regrets what he did do, while Joe and Ruth regret what they didn't. Alan faces the wrath of his business partner Joe when Joe is angry at him for drink driving, and losing them a very important client.

Sandie's pregnancy is causing problems between her and Phil, when, suddenly, everything changes - and Beckindale is suddenly full of twitchers. Seth chats to one of the twitchers but gets no response. Amos is then inundated with customers at The Woolpack - the bird watchers. Kathy goes to the pub to help Amos out. Jackie thinks that they are not spending enough time together now they are married. Sandie tells Phil that she has had a miscarriage. Sandie then says that Phil should be pleased she lost the baby as he never wanted the baby. Phil accuses her of being sorry for herself.

Amos is determined not to be caught out twice by the bird-watchers. Also he is still worried that Henry is going to move to Italy, seeing as Seth saw Henry at the travel agents in Hotten earlier on.

Amos reveals the secret of his black stockings, while Jack comes from the library with a mystery, a romance - and a date! Joe has a plan to make him and Alan fast cash at Home Farm. As they need to pay off the mortgage, Joe plans on having acres of trees on Home Farm land felled. Joe takes Alan to the woodland where he announces his plan. Joe has called a surveyor called Stephen Fuller. Fuller arrives, and says that the trees are full of knots, and the previous owners did not take care of the trees. Alan walks off in a huff. Joe tells Fuller that Alan was the previous manager and Joe was his boss before they recently bought the place. Fuller admits he was a bit hasty with his remarks about the previous managers. Eric wants his old job back as the auctioneer at Hotten Market.

The only way Joe and Turner can stay in business is to cut down hundreds of beautiful trees - and Jack is determined to stop them. When he hears this, he leaves The Woolpack to see Joe. After Jack has gone, Stephen says to Sandie that they will be cutting down enough trees to make Jack really mad. Jack confronts Joe and says the trees belong to Beckindale but Joe says they are his now. Joe says that the cutting down and sale of these trees will keep Home Farm in business and will be beneficial to the community in the long run. Jack leaves in disgust. Jack also invites his new girlfriend Sarah Connolly round to Emmerdale.

Kathy doesn't want a job, while both Sandie and Eric do and Alan and Seth find themselves with not one job, but two. Annie says that Jack seems to be in a odd mood. Jack says it is due to Joe and Alan cutting down hundreds of trees to make money for Home Farm. Seth and Amos are embroiled in an allotment war, and said the sewage works go under Amos' allotment. The second of Seth and Alan's jobs is to help Alan and Bill repair the flood damage at the Bates house. But while doing the work, Alan breaks one of Caroline Bates's ornaments. Alan then starts to fall through the ceiling, but manages to grab the bannisters so only his legs go through the ceiling. He assures Caroline that he is quite alright. Jackie is stood watching and laughs.

Seth has left his onions at The Bates' house after helping with the repairs last night, and his chances of winning the Master Gardeners Competition are scuppered when Alan, Nick and Caroline eat the onions for their dinner.

Phil risks his relationship with Sandie when Eric persuades him to step the wrong side of the law. Sarah Connolly visits Jack at Emmerdale Farm. Having had his onions accidentally eaten, Seth wants to win The Master Gardeners Competition, and steals some flowers from Home Farm. He is seen by Nick who pretends to be Alan, and Seth starts to make his excuses, but he turns round and realises Nick is playing a prank on him. Seth lets him in on the secret. At the competition in The Woolpack, Seth is found out and exposed as a cheat. He plays innocent but everyone in the pub boos him and calls him a cheat.

Nick and Caroline are settling in well at Home Farm during their temporary stay there. Seth has been barred from The Woolpack due to cheating at the Master Gardeners Competition. Nick has high hopes of finding work when Alan fixes him an interview - while Sandie makes a frightening discovery about Phil and Eric. Eric has bought a £180 Victorian chest which Phil is doing up, maybe as a con to make money. Sandie tells Phil that she is on to him.

Nick and Caroline are eating Alan out of house and home during their stay at Home Farm. They agree to go Dutch. Joe has a bull delivered to Home Farm, and it seems to frighten Nick a bit. Sarah is getting fed up of Jack's arrogance and attitude, and his sly digs at her best pals. She tells him it is 1988 now and he needs to grow up. She then walks off. Ruth returns from a weekend in Ireland with her fiancé with some startling news for Joe. She says she has split from Liam for good. She says her and Joe can be together.

Suddenly, there's nothing to stop Joe and Ruth being together - but Sandie and Phil are being forced apart. Bill takes the bull to the market. Eric and Phil plan to make fast cash. He has bought a Victorian chest for £180, which Phil has made up to look Georgian so he can sell it for a profit and rip people off. Phil sells it for £2000. Eric gives Phil the money. Alan is facing his day in court over his drink driving incident but orders Seth to hurry up with the repairs at The Bates' house as he feels that Nick and Caroline are eating him out of house and home at Home Farm. Jack has ordered some tree trunks, so he can plant them and grown them into trees. Annie thinks Jack is reading too much into the tree felling at Home Farm.

Alan counts the cost of his brush with the law, while for Annie, of all people, crime apparently does pay! Sandie confronts Eric about him and Phil's dodgy antique fraud. She says she should expose him as a fraud and when he threatens her, she grabs him by the collar. He backs off.

Dolly decides that it's time Archie found a new home, while Joe and Ruth move a step closer to living together.

Seth's new look gives the rest of Beckindale something to chew over, while a dinner guest at Emmerdale Farm gives both Jack and Dolly food for thought.

Amos considers buying his eggs from somebody other than Dolly, noting that his current eggs are of better quality. At Emmerdale Farm, Dolly wonders why her hens aren't laying many eggs.

Phil risks his life and saves Annie from Crossgill , but Jack is suspcious about how the fire started. Dolly is devastated. She has flashbacks to all their hopes and dreams for the place. Alan still has no voice, and Caroline has to read the speech in front of the amused guests. Seth disposes of his false teeth, in a scarecrow.

Matt tries to pick up the pieces and start again after the aftermath of the fire, but Dolly has lost interest in their future. Jack still wants to know how the fire at Crossgill Farm started. Phil knows he left some rags near the stove, but does not tell Jack this, so fobs him off. Matt suggests faulty wiring may have started the fire. Alan still has no voice, so Seth decides to play on this as he also thinks Alan is deaf. Seth goes to the pub, but Alan follows, and when Alan tries some egg in vinegar, he gets his voice back. He is annoyed at Seth for thinking he was deaf as well as temporarily mute and had conned his way to skiving off down the pub. Phil claims the fire at Crossgill was just an accident but Dolly says Annie almost died.

Sandie strikes up a friendship with Stephen, and it looks like Phil's problems have only just begun. The 2 tourists, Simon Dowling and his sister Lucy complain about the local water, and also are not impressed by the attitude of some of the locals so quickly leave.

Dolly takes off from the routines of Emmerdale Farm, and a chance encounter with Stephen promises excitement - but danger too. She gets a small piece of straw in her eye, and Stephen - used to working in timber yards etc - tells her he is something of an expert at getting bits of sawdust out of people's eyes, and manages to fish it out with a handkerchief. Henry is doing more bird watching and notices a peregrine falcon.

Henry and Matt rescue an injured peregrine falcon near the farm. Matt also speaks with Alan about fixing a faulty wall at Emmerdale. Dolly finds herself far away from Emmerdale, from Matt, and all the certainties of married life. She meets Steve by chance in Harrogate where he teaches some days at the agricultural college. She mentions how she was going to have another child after Sam but that went wrong, and she still feels very sorry about it. She says that she is happy at Emmerdale though. As they part, Stephen asks to see her again, next week. Hesitant initially, she agrees to meet him.

Dolly's absences from the farm have not gone unnoticed, and Matt is determined to find out what's been going on. Stephen goes to the rendevous point he and Dolly had arranged, but Dolly was unable to go: Matt had insisted they spend the day together to try and sort things out. Dolly had tried phoning to let him know, but was unable to reach him. Later, Phil jumps to conclusions when he sees Stephen chatting to Sandie outside the Woolpack, overhearing the end of the conversation, gaining entirely the wrong impression.

Phil, his suspicions about Stephen and Sandie getting the better of him, confronts Stephen in the Woolpack, threatening to punch him, whereupon Stephen puts him straight, telling him that Sandie actually thinks the world of him. Ironically, Matt defends Stephen, telling Phil he's being ridiculous. Later, Stephen meets Dolly at the rendevous place they'd agreed before, and pressures Dolly to spend the afternoon with him. Dolly resists, and they part, but as she is driving away, changes her mind and follows him to his cottage. Time is running out, and she knows she's risking losing both Matt and Stephen.

Sam is taken ill and Dolly is nowhere to be found. But Matt has a pretty good idea where she is. Stephen has been offered a job in Scotland. She says she loves him and does not want him to go away to Scotland for his new job. Joe calls round to the forresters cottage, but Dolly hides in the bedroom. Dolly returns to Emmerdale and is met by a furious Matt who knows she has been with Stephen.

Stephen tries to stop the affair with Dolly before any more damage is done - but as far as Matt's concerned it's already too late. Stephen then leaves for Scotland alone. Donald Hinton says that he saw Dolly leave the forresters cottage where Stephen was. Matt confronts Dolly about her affair with Stephen. Matt says that their marriage is over