BC, having just read LL and discussed it with Ruth Salperton, is terribly distressed that TW has felt under an obligation to do more on the farm than his health could easily cope with, and worries that he has actually caused TW to be in the state described at the start of LL where he's lying in his own urine.
So he decided to take action. He brought in a young couple who could take over the cider-making while living on the farm in a caravan. That way, Moth and Raynor could continue to live on the farm and focus on Moth's health. Raynor gave Bill her tacit agreement to this but when he arrives at Haye Farm with the young cider makers, Moth is furious. He comes out of the farmhouse shouting.
Bill told me 'It was really terrifying.' Moth looked like a different person, he said. His eyes were blank and he was in a rage. Bill fled. When he gathered his thought, he wrote to Raynor. 'Hi Ray, Must admit that I left yesterday confused, and a little upset, so just wondering if Moth is OK, because he was very un-Moth-like. I know you are delighted that this couple are back, but I thought Moth's reception was definitely not in keeping, and slightly bizarre. Hope all ok.'
Raynor was busy and it took several days before she replied. 'Hi Bill, I'm so sorry you were upset. I'm so, so sorry you encountered the side of CBD I try to keep away from everyone. It can last a day, a week, or more. It can take its own shape, which I know how to deal with, but can come as a shock to others who can't understand the complete contrast to the Moth they know.'
But at the end of Ray's new book, Bill had just read that the disease had all but cleared from Moth's brain. What was going on? So he replied Hi Ray, I appreciate your message but my confusion continues. I've now finished Landlines, and although I had an inkling that the health update was positive, and thought it was just truly incredible news, are you suggesting that the final few pages are too positive? I'm aware of the pressures publishers put on writers, and read with caution, but I'm not sure what to conclude. Perhaps some time we just sit down and chat openly, without worrying about books and stuff.'
Raynor never acknowledges this message and they never speak about any of this again, and now, the more Bill thinks about it, the more confused he is. That autumn day when Moth told him he couldn't plan beyond Christmas, that seemed to be right at the same time as Ray's book said they were getting a miraculous brain scan from the doctor. Bill messaged Ruth to ask if he was going crazy. No, she told him, she'd started to go back over everything too, and this gradual sickening feeling was creeping over her.
Ruth then starts rereading the books and making copious notes 'about what made sense and what didn't,' BC likewise, particularly worried because he knows Rick Stein's film crew are about to arrive. BC told Ch he was feeling so 'confused and upset' about the situation that he couldn't bring himself to go to the farm while it was being recorded. CH notes that the processes TW demonstrates to Rick Stein are exactly what the Walkers haven't been doing the whole time they've lived there, and quotes BC as saying that the cider Rick Stein is shown as drinking on tv was 'made by the young couple Ray and Moth strenuously tried to keep away from the farm'.
Two weeks after the RS filming, BC gets an email out of the blue.
'Dear Bill, Moth's health must be our main focus, so it is with great sadness we are giving notice of the ending of our tenancy agreement. I am aware that our arrangement runs for another 12 months, but due to Moth's health considerations, we will be leaving at the earliest opportunity.
BC drove to Haye hoping to say goodbye, but the house was empty, the keys under the mat. A year after they've left, during 2023 Maxine Faramond phones him from Wales, having got the contacts from Companies House, because she's desperate to get the Walkers to do a mail redirect because she's still getting letters about money owed, and once they exchange stories, her first question is 'How much do they owe you?' BC says 'the utilities were left in a bit of a mess' and the lost farm revenue amounted to tens of thousands of pounds, but the emotional cost upsets him the most.
Other things from episode 3, that BC only charged them 'a tiny rent' and had actually been thinking of 'signing the farmhouse over to them permanently', and they'd been planning to go into business together as 'Ray at Haye' (something to do with rewilding). That he'd felt their paths were due to cross after he read TSP, as he'd been conned out of money and his wife had been diagnosed with cancer.
That he'd proposed bringing in the young cider-making couple before, but SW had told him that 'Moth's pride was hurt by that' so he dropped it. Also that BC had suggested that he meet them and walk with them for a day or two on the LL walk (it seems out of concern for their wellbeing) but that 'they didn't seem keen' so he dropped the suggestion.
Ruth Salperton disputes the portrayal of Haye as desolate and overfarmed. She also says the description of Bill in TWS as city slicker struck her as 'unkind' and that she asked him about it and he said 'Oh, publishing demands certain things' -- CH also describes BC as walking around Haye in cardigans full of holes and ancient slippers.
ETA Bolded bits are direct transcriptions from podcast.