Troubled times leave a community at war
Films and TV dramas are nothing without a decent script – and yet, the writer is often forgotten amidst the hurly burly of star names and hot directors. But that’s not the case with JK Rowling. She’s one of the most famous authors in the world thanks to her all-conquering, multimillion-selling Harry Potter franchise, and when that came to an end, everyone wanted to know what she would do next. The answer was The Casual Vacancy, Sunday, BBC1, 9pm, her first nonPotter related work; it also became the fastest-selling British novel written for adults in three years when it hit shops in 2012. It certainly came as no surprise when the BBC grasped the opportunity to adapt it for the small screen. Rowling herself has not written the screenplay; Sarah Phelps, whose previous work includes EastEnders, The Crimson Field, Great Expectations and And Then There Were None, was entrusted with the task.“Sarah Phelps is a writer at the top of her game,” says Rowling.“Having met Sarah, and discussed the television adaptation of The Casual Vacancy, I was happy and confident to hand over the job of crafting my novel for the small screen. Sarah has done a great job and I am delighted with how it has turned out.” Thanks to its depiction of interwoven lives in an English village, The Casual Vacancy has been likened to a Dickensian tale, so Phelps’ previous experience of adapting his work may have come in handy. Set in the seemingly idyllic Pagford in the West Country, the plot follows what happens after the sudden death of Barry Fairbrother, a local parish councillor who passionately wanted to keep an important local legacy intact – but was meeting fierce opposition from chairman Howard Mollison. After Barry’s death, the fight for his seat on the council begins, while the lives of those who knew and loved him are changed in numerous ways. The three-part drama’s premise may sound bleak, but Phelps insists there’s lots of light among the shade.“If you’re doing permanently bleak, you just see the tragedy and become numb to the bleak,” Phelps explains.“It needs to be shot through with moments of absolute transformative glory about what it is to be alive and the possibility of love and hope in the future. Which means when you see the darkness, you can really see it. “Also, you have to have humour because humour is life and is in the normal way people talk to each other. The majority of people in The Casual Vacancy are not aware they have the power to change. They are just selfish. So their selfishness is funny in a way. I think humour is different to comedy. If you’re playing a human being, there’s going to be humour in there.”