For the villagers of Aidensfield and district, the market towns provide a focus for their business activities as well as their social outings, and Ashfordly is no exception. Normally quiet and peaceful, it comes alive with traders and customers on market day - and such gatherings are never without problems for Constable Nick. As he goes about his rustic constabulary duties, he sympathizes with members of the Thumbstick Club when someone steals their precious sticks, copes with a wandering flock of geese on the village green and deals with near disaster when Greengrass's dog, Alfred, demolishes market stalls in his quest to catch a white rabbit and wonders how a live hand grenade came to be left among the potatoes. The area continues to reveal eccentric characters, like old Mr Galbraith whose ambition is to freewheel as far as possible in his car, or Twelve-pint Pete who can't resist the challenge of drinking a yard of ale in record time. Sightings of an Arab, an American Indian, a Laughing Cavalier, a city gent and a UFO cause some puzzlement. stupidity and even a crime or two - it's all in a day's work for Constable Nick of Aidensfield, the policeman who inspired Heartbeat.