Episode two

Laura is still settling in to her new life at the Candleford Post Office, as the adaptation of Flora Thomson’s magical memoirs of her Oxfordshire childhood continues. Laura is helping postwoman Mrs Macey with her rounds and making friends, when Mrs Macey learns, to her horror, that her husband has escaped from prison.

Worse still, her son has apparently befriended a mysterious stranger in the woods and it’s no surprise to learn that it’s his father. Encouraged by Dorcas, Mrs Macey manages to persuade her husband to hand himself in, and reconciles things with her son. However, shaken by her treatment at the hands of the Candleford gossips – not least Zillah, Dorcas’s maid – Mrs Macey decides that the time has come to leave.

Meanwhile, down the road in Lark Rise, Caroline Arless has been summoned to court, and faces debtors’ prison. Robert speaks up for her and Sir Tim eventually imposes a lenient penalty – but with a heavy warning. Caroline’s “feather the foam” philosophy needs curbing if she’s to stay out of trouble for long.

Laura Timmins is played by Olivia Hallinan, Mrs Macey by Claire Skinner, Dorcas Lane by Julia Sawalha, Zillah by Liz Smith, Caroline Arless by Dawn French, Robert Timmins by Brendan Cole and Sir Timothy Midwinter by Ben Miles.