Mrs Peaceful is defiant when the Colonel confronts the family regarding the foxhound, Bertha.
Private Peaceful - Episode 5: synopsis
At the start of the episode Tommo refers to seeing larks over no-man’s-land and we learn for the first time that he must be a soldier in World War 1.
In Tommo’s next recollection the Colonel demands to know what Charlie has done with Bertha. Mr Peaceful negotiates with him and pays sixpence for the dog. However, Charlie is dismissed from his job and later he goes to work for Farmer Cox. As a result Tommo sees even less of him.
Molly stops visiting and Mrs Peaceful realises that her parents must be responding to malicious stories that Charlie is a thief. Charlie is determined to keep in contact with Molly and enlists Tommo as his go-between delivering letters. It is from Molly’s overheard conversations up at the ‘Big House’ that Tommo first hears of the impending war.
On returning home one day Tommo and Charlie discover Molly and her mother at the cottage. Charlie’s letters have been discovered along with their love for each other and their secret meetings. Tommo didn’t know of their meetings and feels betrayed by them both.
One evening Bertha goes missing and does not return. Tommo goes in search of her in Fords Cleave Wood and hears a shot ring out. He finds Bertha dead outside his father’s old shack with the Colonel standing over her. Charlie and Molly run from the shack. Their meeting place has been discovered.
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Clip: A defiant Mrs Peaceful buys the foxhoud, Bertha, for sixpence
More from this series
Private Peaceful – Episode 4. audio
Tommo recalls how Charlie and he are caught poaching on the Colonel's land; how Charlie and Molly go to work at the Big House; how one day Tommo sees Charlie and Molly holding hands.
Private Peaceful – Episode 6. audio
Tommo recalls how one day his brother Big Joe goes missing and how, when he does not return home, the whole village turns out to help with the search.
Private Peaceful – Episode 7. audio
Tommo recalls how Molly comes to stay with the family and how in the nearby town of Hatherleigh he sees the army recruiting for volunteers. Suddenly the war seems much closer.
