The Casual Vacancy
- TV Mini Series
- 2015
- 1h
IMDb RATING
6.5/10
3.2K
YOUR RATING
The citizens of the small British town of Pagford fight for the spot on the parish council after Barry Fairbrother dies.The citizens of the small British town of Pagford fight for the spot on the parish council after Barry Fairbrother dies.The citizens of the small British town of Pagford fight for the spot on the parish council after Barry Fairbrother dies.
- Awards
- 3 nominations
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Did you know
- TriviaResidents of Painswick, Gloucestershire, which doubled as the fictional Pagford, were shocked and angered to discover that a shop selling sexy lingerie had just opened in their high street. Some wandered in to examine the goods while others complained about it at the local parish council meeting, not realizing that it was just a movie set.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Wright Stuff: Episode #20.35 (2015)
Featured review
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.
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.
helpful•377
- petehand-60425
- Mar 28, 2015
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Una vacante imprevista
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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