Business is not exactly booming in the cafe in Emmerdale. Even Nicola King (Nicola Wheeler)’s amazingly tempting offer of ‘six brownies for the price of five and a half’ wasn’t stirring up much enthusiasm.
Nicola isn’t a person who gives up without a fight and she and Jimmy (Nick Miles) soon had a plan: Nicola would organise a village fete. As usual with Nicola, once she gets an idea she goes full steam ahead with it and hapless passers-by are soon swept up in her schemes.
The first person to come into the cafe in search of a quiet coffee was Moira Dingle (Natalie J. Robb), and Nicola immediately rushed towards her clutching a clipboard under her arm – always a bad sign.
‘Village fete,’ she said. ‘Usually utter pointless dull-fest, right?’ Moira had to agree. But this time, Nicola said, the village fete she was organising would be ‘amazing.’
Moira was already bracing herself for what would come next and said no, she couldn’t get involved, she was too busy. Nicola swept this aside because nobody is too busy to ‘make a few scarecrows,’ and obviously with Moira being a farmer she’s probably spending most of her days doing that anyway.
An obviously reluctant Moira did her best to hold out as Nicola argued that she was doing it for the benefit of the whole village, to get business booming. ‘Stalls, music, kids’ entertainer, barbecue, biggest cucumber competition…’ It certainly sounds unmissable.
‘I suppose I get the biggest cucumber award,’ Jimmy said. ‘I wish,’ sighed Nicola, already putting Moira’s name down on her clipboard despite her protests before rushing off.
Left alone with Moira, Jimmy attempted to explain. ‘You know when you can’t stop thinking about something, so you find something else to think about and throw yourself at it like a maniac?’ he said.
Moira realised that Nicola was really just trying to take her mind off her daughter Angelica (Rebecca Bakes), who is currently in a secure children’s home in Bristol after being found guilty of causing the death of Heath Hope by dangerous driving.
Because they can’t get to Bristol as often as they would like to visit their daughter, Jimmy and Nicola worry about her constantly, particularly as the news coming from the home hasn’t been all that reassuring and Angel’s behaviour has been giving the staff some concern.
In fact the reports that Nicola and Jimmy had received suggested that Angelica had been pushing the staff to the limit.
Knowing how much this meant to Nicola, Moira pledged her support to the village fete, telling Jimmy, ‘We’ll make sure it’s everything she wants it to be.’
