'The Casual Vacancy': J.K. Rowling Gets Down and Dirty

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Would the combined forces of HBO and the BBC have united to produce a three-part TV-movie of The Casual Vacancy had its source novel not been written by J.K. Rowling? I think it’s safe to say, not likely.

An odd duck in all respects, The Casual Vacancy is about the secrets and lies in a small British village named Pagford. There, the town council is divided over the use of a lovely old building, Sweetlove House, being used as a counseling center. One faction wants to turn it into a luxury spa; the other wants it to remain as it is. The most reasonable man in Pagford seems to be Barry Fairbrother (Rory Kinnear), a modest man of calm reasonableness. He’s surrounded by far less likable characters, such as a wheedling shop owner, Howard Mollison, played by Michael Gambon, and Barry’s obnoxious half-brother, Simon (Richard Glover).

It’s not giving anything away to say that the reasonable Fairbrother dies before the first part of The Casual Vacancy ends, and since Barry was a swing-vote on the future of Sweetlove House, his death stirs up the placid little town. Yet Barry’s spirit also continues to haunt the village in an unexpected way. 

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Despite its quaint picturesque town backdrop, The Casual Vacancy is an ugly little piece of work, filled with bitterness, sniping, selfishness, and cruelty. There is no character other than Barry who seems remotely appealing or interesting. (Kinnear does an excellent job of making ordinary decency intriguing.) One of the main subplots involves the election to replace Barry’s council seat, and it’s a dreary process, involving a lot of laborious plotting and backstabbing.

I haven’t read the Rowling novel on which this miniseries is based, but to watch this production, adapted by Sarah Phelps and directed by Jonny Campbell, it seems like Rowling’s attempt to put aside Harry Potter fantasy and create a grim experiment that blends dirty realism into the small-town satires of Angela Thirkill. Gambon is such a good actor, no viewer is going to be thinking much of Professor Dumbledore, and the rest of the cast plays everything as petty and mean-spirited as most of the characters are intended to be. But it’s no fun living in this village with them.

The Casual Vacancy premieres Wednesday, April 29 at 8 p.m. on HBO.