Lark Rise To Candleford – Series 3 – Episode 4

Sydney’s (Edward Darnell-Hayes) day of fun turns sour

It’s harvest time and, when Alf is crowned “king of the mowers”, he vows to bring in the harvest in record time, as the third series of the period drama based on the novels by Flora Thompson continues.

Every man, woman and child in the hamlet is employed cutting the wheat and collecting the “leazings”, or leftover wheat, which will feed them through the winter. Dorcas decides a day of fun with the Lark Rise children at the harvest is just what her serious little boy, Sydney, needs.

Alf sets his workers off at a cracking pace and Dorcas is delighted to see Sydney making mischief with Archie Arless. When Dorcas takes Sydney home, he is glowing after his day in the sun with his new friends.

Daniel pays a surprise visit to Candleford. Despite his passionate feelings for Laura, he has come to announce that he has taken a new job in Cambridge. The distance is too great for regular visits and Laura is left perplexed and disappointed at Daniel’s sudden change of heart.

The following morning, Dorcas goes to wake Sydney and finds him dangerously ill with measles. She puts the Post Office into quarantine and devotes herself to nursing Sydney, terrified that her beloved boy will be taken away. Over in Lark Rise, Frank and Annie Timmins are also sick, and before long most of the children in the hamlet are infected. Daniel is leaving Candleford in a coach when he comes across Sally Arless struggling to carry her poorly brother, Archie, home. Daniel steps in to help and, putting thoughts of leaving to one side, he offers his support to the Lark Risers as they struggle to deal with a measles epidemic.

With nearly all the children sick and the women occupied in nursing them, the hamlet faces a grave problem. With too few people in the fields bringing in the wheat, they won’t have enough food to prevent starvation in the winter. But Robert refuses to allow the epidemic to beat them and, in a rousing speech to the hamlet folk, he persuades them of a scheme which just might avert disaster. The children will be nursed together in Queenie’s cottage, while those who can work in the fields will pool their wheat among all the families in the hamlet.

But Daniel quickly realises that there are simply not enough people to go round, and he rushes off to Candleford with an idea. In a speech which echoes Robert’s in Lark Rise, Daniel makes a heartfelt appeal to the people of Candleford to help out their neighbours in Lark Rise. Laura looks on with pride. But will the Candleford gentlefolk rise to the challenge?

The epidemic finally passes, but it leaves the two communities changed for ever.

John Dagleish plays Alf, Julia Sawalha plays Dorcas, Edward Darnell-Hayes plays Sydney, Harry Miles plays Archie Arless, Ben Aldridge plays Daniel, Olivia Hallinan plays Laura, Sophie Miles plays Sally Arless, Brendan Coyle plays Robert and Linda Bassett plays Queenie.

Lark Rise To Candleford is simulcast on the BBC HD channel – the BBC’s High Definition channel, available through Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media.