Very quickly, we learn that The Casual Vacancy has a strong social message, and isn't scared to highlight it clearly and boldly. He and his wife (Julia McKenzie) want his beloved town to "raise the drawbridge against junkies and plebs", and is dubious about "outsiders", wanting to ensure that his fellow residents are "Pagford people" (using character and bank references and interviews for gaining an allotment). As an advocate for social integration, his views were at odds with the more rightwing Chairman of the Parish Council, Howard Mollison (played by Dumbledore himself, Michael Gambon).
The community he's left behind are equal parts distraught and relieved. As a viewer, the gap left by his death is monumentally felt, and the repercussions of his brain aneurysm are the starting point for the plot (differing a tad from the novel, where he's already dead from the beginning). Which is why, when his death comes around at about the halfway point, it's all the more palpable - if you managed to avoid that particular spoiler ahead of transmission. Bringing all his charm to the role, we're immediately engaged by his kindness (helping out drug addict/prostitute Terri Weedon), his sense of fairness and morality (the impassioned speech against the slightly more fascistic natures of his colleagues), and his affability (comically swearing in front of his nephews in a church). Played by the ubiquitous and brilliant Rory Kinnear, his casting as Barry was spot on.
Our journey begins with the warm and likeable Barry Fairbrother, a councillor on the local parish.
And a death, but let's come to that later. Like Chris Chibnall's popular ITV show, The Casual Vacancy also features murky secrets lying close to the surface of an idyllic English town.
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