The Casual Vacancy 

The citizens of the small British town of Pagford fight for the spot on the parish council after Barry Fairbrother (Rory Kinnear) dies.

Stars:

Silas Carson, Joe Hurst, Michael Gambon

3 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Silas Carson	...	Vikram Jawanda 3 episodes, 2015
Joe Hurst	...	Andrew 'Arf' Price 3 episodes, 2015
Michael Gambon	...	Howard Mollison 3 episodes, 2015
Rory Kinnear	...	Barry Fairbrother 3 episodes, 2015
Abigail Lawrie	...	Krystal Weedon 3 episodes, 2015
Emily Bevan	...	Mary Fairbrother 3 episodes, 2015
Rufus Jones	...	Miles Mollison 3 episodes, 2015
Richard Glover	...	Simon Price 3 episodes, 2015
Monica Dolan	...	Tess Wall 3 episodes, 2015
Julia McKenzie	...	Shirley Mollison 3 episodes, 2015
Lolita Chakrabarti	...	Parminder Jawanda 3 episodes, 2015
Bryce Sanders	...	Robbie Weedon 3 episodes, 2015
Ria Choony	...	Sukhvinder Jawanda 3 episodes, 2015
Keeley Hawes	...	Samantha Mollison 3 episodes, 2015
Sonny Ashbourne Serkis	...	Paul Price 3 episodes, 2015
Brian Vernel	...	Stuart 'Fats' Wall 3 episodes, 2015
Simon McBurney	...	Colin Wall 3 episodes, 2015
Keeley Forsyth	...	Terri Weedon 3 episodes, 2015
Hetty Baynes	...	Mo Johnson 3 episodes, 2015
Michele Austin	...	Kaye Bawden 3 episodes, 2015
Menna Trussler	...	Betty 3 episodes, 2015
Marie Critchley	...	Ruth Price 3 episodes, 2015
Simona Brown	...	Gaia Bawden 3 episodes, 2015
Mary Roscoe	...	Monica the Librarian / ... 3 episodes, 2015
Sope Dirisu	...	Young Doctor 3 episodes, 2015
Hayley Downing	...	Lexi Mollison 2 episodes, 2015
Lauren Downing	...	Libby Mollison 2 episodes, 2015
Vass Anderson	...	Bill 2 episodes, 2015
Emilia Fox	...	Julia Sweetlove 2 episodes, 2015
Julian Wadham	...	Aubrey Sweetlove 2 episodes, 2015
Sam Redford	...	Obbo 2 episodes, 2015
Pascal Laurent	...	Death 2 episodes, 2015
Alex Lowe	...	Copper 2 episodes, 2015
Derek Hutchinson	...	Vicar 2 episodes, 2015
Jacob Krichefski	...	Mr. Meacher 2 episodes, 2015
Elizabeth Rider	...	Maggie 2 episodes, 2015

Storyline

When Parish Councilman Barry Fairbrother (Rory Kinnear) unexpectedly dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock. An English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, Pagford is not what it first seems. What lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war - rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, and teachers at war with their pupils. And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest battle the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity, and unexpected revelations?

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Plot Keywords:

parish council | competition | rivals | vacant seat | murder | 

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Taglines:

Based on the novel by J.K. Rowling.

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Genres:

Drama

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Did You Know?

Trivia

Sir Michael Gambon appeared in another J.K. Rowling work as Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore in the Harry Potter film franchise.

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Connections

Featured in Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe: Episode #10.6 (2015)

User Reviews

If you've read the book, you'll hate what they did to it.

This series made me want to weep - at the senseless waste of acting talent and script material. For this is not a TV dramatization of "The Casual Vacancy" by J. K. Rowling. It's a TV dramatization of the Reader's Digest Condensed Version of The Casual Vacancy. What's more, it appears that slashing it down from a full series to a 3 part synopsis was done after filming already started, probably by the director tearing pages out on the set, rather than by intelligent script writers. How else to explain the presence of all the characters from the book, yet no role - not even dialog - for some of them? How else to explain all the setups in Episode 1 that are just left hanging with no follow-up? What does remain is excellent, completely capturing Rowling's characterizations and the petty snobbery of English village life, but the ruthless editing leaves too much out and too many loose ends. There's no exploration of the interaction between children and parents that is core to the book. There's no hint of who is behind the "ghost", a major plot device. Sukhvinder, who has a life-changing experience in the original, is literally seen but not heard. There's no resolution for the dysfunctional Price family. I don't know why the scriptwriters even bothered telling us Gaia's name, since she's reduced to a walk-on extra.

What's left, basically, is an excellent performance from Michael Gambon and Julia McKenzie as the Mollisons. It's worth watching just for that. But that's the tragedy of this series - these are the canonical Morrisons, nobody will ever do it better. And that means the series will never be remade, and the full story will never be told.

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 April 2015 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Casual Vacancy

Filming Locations:

Northleach, Gloucestershire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bronte Film and TV, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Home Box Office (HBO)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

180 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1