Barry was a member of the Pagford Parish Council and due to his death they have to elect someone to take his place. The candidates were: Mr Colin Wall, the Headmaster at the local school; the dependent Mr Miles Mollison, the son of the self-absorbed Parish Council leader Howard Mollison; and the abusive Mr Simon Price, Barry's half-brother. Simon pulls out of the election after his son, Andrew, creates a Ghost_of_Barry_Fairbrother who mocks the candidates. In the end Mr Miles Mollison wins the election by one vote as Mr Colin Wall votes against himself. The Pagford Parish Council's focus is voting for whether Sweetlove House should stay as a community centre, a necessity for the Fields Council Estate, or to be turned into a spa, a luxury for the village of Pagford. The decision has disastrous outcomes. Barry Fairbrother, who dies unexpectedly, is an extremely sympathetic character who is married to Mary Fairbrother. Barry and Mary have no children but Barry's unsympathetic and abusive half-brother Simon Price, who is married to Ruth Price, has two children: Andrew and Paul Price. Simon's son, Andrew, is best friends with Stuart (Fats) Wall who is the adopted son of Tessa Wall, Krystal Weedon's counsellor, and Colin Wall, the Deputy Headmaster at the local school. Fats has a sexual relationship with Krystal Weedon, a resident of "The Fields Council Estate". Krystal is very protective of her younger brother, Robbie Weedon, because their mother, Terri Weedon, is a recovering drug addict. During the series the Weedons get a new temporary social worker, Kay Bawden. Kay has a daughter Gaia Bawden, who Andrew Price gets a romantic interest in. Towards the end of the series Andrew Price and Gaia Bawden get a job at Howard Mollison's delicatessen. Howard Mollison, the unsympathetic Leader of Pagford Parish Council, is married to Shirley Mollison. In the series Howard and Shirley only have one child Miles Mollison, who is a lawyer, is married to Samantha Mollison, who owns a failing lingerie shop. Miles and Sam have two twin daughters, Lexie and Libby. Samantha develops a crush on Vikram Jawanda, a cosmetic surgeon, who is married to Parminder Jawanda, a GP and a member of the Pagford Parish Council. Vikram and Parminder have a silent daughter, Sukhvinder, who says one line in the whole mini-series and that line is: "Whose f***in fault is it then?" after Krystal Weedon tragically drowns, one of her most significant lines in the series raising the question of our responsibility for other. Parminder is good friends with Barry Fairbrother and, like Barry, want to save Sweetlove House, bequeathed to Pagford by ancestors of Aubrey and Julia Sweetlove. Aubrey and Julia Sweetlove want Sweetlove House to be turned into a spa for their own profit. A main theme of the mini-series is the widening gap between rich and poor, The Sweetloves/Howard Mollison vs The Weedons/Barry Fairbrother. The rich (Sweetloves and Howard) want Sweetlove House to become a spa so that they can get more money whereas Barry wants to keep Sweetlove House as a Community Centre because he knows what it is like living on The Fields Council Estate as he, as a young boy, lived there. The story is reminiscent of Thomas Hardy's tragedies set in rural Wessex where circumstance and social attitudes are seen as significant contributors to someone's unnecessary death as Barry, unfortunately dies in a rural town Pagford.