Think The Vicar of Dibley with elements of Eastenders in it and you will pretty much have an idea of what the first episode of this new three part BBC1 drama was like.  The screenplay was written by Sarah Phelps and is based on the J.K Rowling adult novel The Casual Vacancy. I’ll start off by saying I loved it, in fact I will go one step further and say I absolutely loved it!

Having read the book a few years ago and having a mixed opinion of it, I was not completely sure what to expect as I sat down to watch the television version.  For example, I really enjoyed large parts of book but thought the ending was a big letdown.  My expectations were lukewarm you could say. I thought I am either going to really like this or really hate it.  To my delight and on the basis of just this first episode, I think Sarah Phelps has done a brilliant job with the writing of it.  I was caught a bit unawares at first because in the novel the Barry Fairbrother(Roy Kinnear) character dies more or less straight away, whereas here we did not see his demise until about half way through it.  In the book you only get to know this character after his death and so I think I preferred the television version.  His death had greater dramatic impact because we had witnessed just what a worthy altruistic person he was, he cared about disadvantaged people.

The action was set in a rural idyllic village called Pagford and this first episode centred largely on the rumblings of a local Parish Council meeting.  The legacy of Sweetlove House was at stake and was discussed with much consternation between members. There was the one camp led by snobs Howard and Shirley Mollison(played byMichael Gambon and Julia MacKenzie) who wanted it to stop serving people from the nearby council estate and become a new luxurious Spa, thus keeping such undesirables further away from their idylic Pagford.  The other camp was led by Barry Fairbrother who believed Sweetlove House played a vital role in helping serve those people in society who were most in need of help.eg drug clinics.  The vote ended in favour of Barry’s view and all seem fined, that was he until dropped dead and a casual vacancy subsequently arose.

I thought Michael Gambon stole the show as over bearing snob Howard Mollison.  I thought the scene where he more or less blackmailed his wimpy son Miles(Rufus Jones) to stand for election, was really funny.  Julia McKenzie was superb as his wife too, brilliantly irritating and snobby.  In fact I thought the whole cast in this first episode were brilliant.  I loved Barry’s psychopathic half brother Simon Price(Richard Glover).  He was unhinged, a bully to his kids and prone to violent outbursts, but he also had this comical edge to him.  I also thought the younger performers acted really well in too. Notably Simon’s son Andrew “Arf” Price(Joe Hurst) and his best mate Stuart “Fats” Wall(Brian Vernel).

It departed from idyllic The Vicar of Dibley terrority and went more gritty realism Eastenders, when we saw a drug addict storyline. We saw drug addict Mum Terri Weedon(Keely Forsyth) neglecting to look after her young child properly due to her habit.  Here J.K.Rowling’s leftist politics came to the fore as due to council budget cuts, social worker character Kay Bawden(Michele Austin) was prevented by her bosses from removing the child and putting him into care.  Writer Jan Moir in the Daily Mail criticised the book’s lefty politics by saying it was “500pages of the socialist manifesto”.  I think it was a silly over-the-top accusation then and it can not be applied to the TV version either.  Terri’s feisty daughter Krystal(Abigal Lawrie) also gave a strong performance I thought. She was like Whitney out of Eastenders but not half as irritating as that character or actress.

This first episode ended on a pulsating cliffhanger of sorts when we saw somebody pose as “The Ghost of Barry Fairbrother”.  We saw them leave a message on the Parish Council website underneath the section that documented Barry’s death.  It breathed new life into this already very watchable drama and I for one can not wait to see episode two this coming Sunday! A big CASUAL HIT for me!