Media Release: Monday May 11, 2015
Co-produced by HBO and the BBC, The Casual Vacancy is a television mini-series based on JK Rowling’s first adult novel of the same name. The series is set in Pagford – a charming English idyll – but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.
Pagford town soon becomes hostile when local councilman Barry Fairbrother (played by Rory Kinnear) dies unexpectedly in his forties resulting in a fight to fill his seat on the parish council. The small community of rich and poor are disputing over the future of a community centre called Sweetlove House, home to social services including a drug rehabilitation centre and a food bank.
Pagford’s wealthier residents, led by Howard Mollison (Michael Gambon) and his wife Shirley (Julia McKenzie), are fed up with the centre being a haven for “junkies and plebs” from a nearby council estate called ‘The Fields’ and they’d like to close the centre for good turning it into a luxury hotel and spa.
The council is currently in deadlock, but with Barry now passed away, whoever gets elected to the position gets to wield the power.
After the election date is announced things take a turn for the worse, as the teenage children of various candidates and existing council members sabotage their parent’s ambitions through anonymous postings on the council’s website, using the name “The Ghost Of Barry Fairbrother.” Meanwhile, the teenagers themselves are caught up in their own school and relationship-related dramas.
Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?
Also starring Richard Glover (as Simon Price), Keely Forsyth (as Terri Weedon), Abigail Lawrie (as Krystal Weedon), Keeley Hawes (as Samantha Mollison), Monica Dolan (as Tess Wall), and many more.
Screenwriter Sarah Phelps adapted JK Rowling’s best-selling novel from page to screen in conjunction with Bronte Film and Television Production for BBC One and HBO. The TV tie-in edition of JK Rowling’s first adult novel The Casual Vacancy is published by Hachette Australia and is available in stores now.
The three part mini-series premieres exclusively on showcase Mondays from May 25 at 8.30pm only on Foxtel.
-Brad