Lark Rise to Candleford - Season 4 (2011)

Robert is working in Oxford and sending money home whilst Ruby Pratt has returned from Pontefract after splitting with her gentleman friend. Gabriel Cochrane, whose wife has died and whose foundry has been repossessed by the bank, comes to Candleford, penniless, and Dorcas employs him in her forge where the work interests Sydney. After Edmund has collected money from Robert at the post office, he arrives home saying he has been robbed. The whole village rallies round Emma.

Daniel launches a poetry competition in his paper. Ruby Pratt, jealous of her sister Pearl's doting on their young lodger, puts it about that the contest is rigged and Laura, as Daniel's girl-friend, is set to win it. Laura withdraws from the contest but, after she has had a lace-making lesson and heart-to-heart with Queenie, Ruby feels guilty and urges Laura to re-enter, at the same time reconciling with Pearl, though the prize is won by Emma after Laura has entered one of her mother's old poems. Dorcas and Laura find, hidden in a book, a letter from Gabriel's late ...

When the vicar is indisposed, young curate Benedict Marley assumes his duties, including running the church bazaar, to the annoyance of staid Thomas, who regards Benedict's free, enlightened interpretation of the Bible as ungodly. Seeing a snake, the uptight Thomas totally over-reacts and sees it as a demonic sign. Emma is also troubled by the sight of the snake as it makes her feel vulnerable as a woman temporarily without a husband. Benedict is seen leaving her house after dark and tongues wag, but Emma explains that the relationship is purely one of pastoral ...