robbiekendalrk 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.

Prismark10 JK Rowling's The Casual Vacancy, a grim adult novel which she wrote under pseudonym looks at life in a small market town of Pagford dominated by grotesque characters like they stepped out of an updated Dickens novel. I have heard it said that the book is also inspired by the play, An Inspector Calls, where various characters in the village are in effect the Birling family who have been responsible to the ruin of a young girl's life.Michael Gambon is the power mad, money grabbing parish councillor who wants to turn a community centre into a wellness spa. Julia McKenzie plays his malicious wife and Keeley Hawes is the flirty but brittle daughter in law. Rory Kinnear is the one who has fought against the closure of the community centre and whose sudden death create the casual vacancy in the parish council and Gambon wants his spineless son to stand and others also wish to contest the seat but a ghost writer on the internet is revealing some home truths.Yet Pagford is not a place just for the haves. Poverty is rife as well as drugs, drink, teenage sex and domestic violence. This is also the story of teenager Krystal Weedon, living with a drug addicted mother and looking after a baby brother with social workers hot on their trail.The three part drama series is a world away from Harry Potter. I know my daughter, a Rowling fan attempted to read The Casual Vacancy but gave up, it was not her kind of book. The series has a bittersweet and grim tone. It is political in context between the haves and haves not, the latter who are getting the rug pulled from under their feet.However the series was not wholly a success, maybe lacking humour, satire and maybe some comeuppance against some horrible people. I believe the ending was changed and softened to make it less tragic from the novel. However I felt that the series would had worked better as a two hours television film and maybe done with being less star studded, Emilia Fox for example was wasted.What is not in doubt is that Abigail Lawrie was outstanding as Krystal.

Brigitta Falcini Fantastic look into human nature and the way we British are with one another. Living in a rural town myself I have met a few people like those in this mini-series.I would thoroughly recommend this to everyone. The story is originally by J.K. Rowling so of course it's going to be brilliant. She once again blew me away with her detailed and thrilling story. The BBC did a fantastic job with adapting it too. Really well written. And they had an incredible cast from Michael Gambon to Keeley Hawkes (a particular favourite of mine). What nailed it for me was the ending. A true look into how unlucky you can be (or how lucky) and to know who your real friends are. Moreover, the little things can create a domino effect and become bigger than you thought. I was in emotional shock in the end. I love it when a film or TV series is SO good that I don't see it coming. Now stop reading this and go watch it!

tooplanx Had to write a quick review to counteract the ridiculous first review from whom I can only assume is one of the privileged snooty characters from the programme. I honestly thought it was a joke outside. The programme isn't particularly crude: it shows a realistic depiction of fairly ordinary life, swearing and sexuality included.Yes, Britain really is like that, and the drama painted a very intimate and affecting portrait of the lives of ordinary people, the hardships they face, and their failings as human beings.Highly recommended. Apparently IMDb wants me to write more, so I'll say that the scenery is also very nice, so if you fancy a holiday somewhere with nice countryside, I believe it was filmed in the Cotswolds...