An injured labrador, sick pigs and a petri dish of mange mites in ITV's first rural soap.

Six years before Emmerdale Farm, the ITV network aired its first rural soap opera: Weavers Green, created by married couple Peter and Betty Lambda for Anglia Television. Anglia wasn't one of the big ITV franchise companies, so it was quite a prize that it managed to produce a drama serial with a primetime slot nationwide, even if Weavers Green didn't last for long (just 25 weeks, or 50 half-hours episodes).

This episode was the first to be televised and neatly sets up the drama of the fictional East Anglian farming village by having all the stories connect through the local vet's office, run by Alan and Dotty Armstrong (Grant Taylor and Megs Jenkins). Dashing newcomer Mr Swan (Maurice Kaufman) drives through the village and hits a labrador belonging to Hazel (Marjie Lawrence). The other vet, metropolitan Mr Toms (Eric Flynn), strikes up a friendship with outspoken farmer Jack Royston (Richard Coleman), and they both come into conflict with wealthy landowner Archibald Langley (Gerald Young) when his pigs become unwell.

As was common for serial dramas of the time, Weavers Green had a mixture of scenes shot on location and in the studio. What was less standard was that exteriors as well as studio scenes were shot on videotape, with the location shoots using equipment usually reserved for outside broadcasts of live events. The production also involved an ambitious amount of live animals, including a very well-trained labrador and a fully-stocked cowshed.