The second series of Lark Rise to Candleford ended with a strange sense of closure without resolution, which on balance is probably a good thing for a franchise with more stories to tell. James Dowland’s son Sydney arrived to stay at the Post Office while his father recovered from his riding accident, and fitted in all too well, while back at Lark Rise Margaret was finding that love can bring you out in a rash. I know how she feels.

So this little guy Sydney locks everything away inside. He doesn’t seem that bothered about his mum dying, or his Dad being sick, but he does like all the business and equipment at the PO. And like most boys of his era, when he can’t speak to people, he can speak to God, so he lets it all out in his prayers. Hopes, fears and dreams. And after a bit of the usual Larky kerfuffle, James realises he’s not really got the chops to be a Dad – yet – so he dumps the kid on Dorcas asks Dorcas nicely if she’d be prepared to look after Sydney while he bobs off back to London to “find a life worth living.”

That’s more dismissive than it sounds. He means a life for himself. Having grown up in Lark Rise under Queenie’s guidance, he knows that the women of Lark Rise and Candleford are what the boy needs now.

With her dead father’s admonitions still ringing around her head, and her overly analytical nature demanding to know the true meaning of love, it’s not surprising Margaret is a nervous wreck, and her nerves boil out of her skin in a rash so bad no amount of Queenie’s lard poultice can cure it. What she needs is a bit of self-belief, and Robert Timmins has more than enough to go around, so he shares a bit with her, and all is well by the morning of her wedding. Thomas never did find out that his bride-to-be spent all those days looking like a strangled beetroot. Probably for the best. He would have assumed she had the devil in her. Or something.

Someone else who learned the true meaning of love this week, and that she deserved it, was Nan. Barricaded into a corner by piles of Alfie’s gifts, she told herself that she didn’t really want a nice lad. It was bad lads she needed. What she meant was, bad lads is all she deserves. Once Emma had pointed out that she could let herself be loved, and those nice lads are better for the long haul, everything got back on an even keel. But not until Laura had admitted to a bit of hankering. Sorry Laura, hankering time’s over. You had your chance and you blew it.

So we bid farewell to Larky for another year, safe in the knowledge that next year’s gloomy winter months will be eased by the sunny, summery days in the Oxford countryside and that another crop of minor mishaps and misunderstandings will have been grown for harvesting by the lovely Dorcas and her assembled crew of wiseacres. Young Sydney’s a promising new character provided they don’t make him TOO good, but I have to say the find of the year has been Minnie (Ruby Bentall). Some of her antics, refreshing bluntness and off-the-cuff remarks have punctured more than one stuffed shirt this year and had me laughing out loud. I do hope she’s here to stay. More news on next year’s cast and guest lists as we get it!