JK Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy Looks Set to Warm Up Sunday Nights on the BBC

It really doesn’t seem so long ago that I sent James out into the cold, cold snow demanding he come back with a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows or on one (to paraphrase the Spartans), but it was quite a shock to realise it was actually way back in 2007.

Since then, we’ve had the films and Pottermore, but author JK Rowling has also been keen to prove she can entertain grown-up readers (even if she can’t quite thrill the critics as much). In 2012, her first foray into the world of the adult novel, The Casual Vacancy, was published and it’s fair to say reviews were mixed.

As much as I love Rowling’s Potter series (and I do, they’re wonderful), somehow I was never quite as compelled to send James out for The Casual Vacancy. He’d probably have told me to bugger off and get it off the internet anyway.

Saving me from hours of browsing, however, is Aunty Beeb. She has waved her magic wand and brought Rowling’s creation to the small screen – and I’m here to tell you it’s bloody brilliant.

Monica Dolan and Rory Kinnear star in the BBC adaptation of JK Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy

Yes, there is swearing – several fucks and at least one wanker – which you’d never hear in the hallowed halls of Hogwarts (at least not when the teachers are listening). But given what’s going on, it’s no surprise.

You see, all is not well in the picturesque village of Pagford, where this glossy mini-series is set. The droolesome stone cottages and narrow streets are under siege from the pikey scrotes living on The Estate, marked on the parish council map under the dread legend ‘here be council houses’.

Said parish council, made up of equal parts true blue pensioners and wishy washy liberals, are at odds over what to do about Sweetlove House, Pagford’s community centre that not only gives the pikey scrotes a reason to swarm into the village, but is a gift from a philanthropic Edwardian with more money than sense.

Local solicitor Barry (Rory Kinnear) makes an impassioned speech to the council when a sneaky vote to close the place and turn it into a spa is sprung on the members, but when he dies unexpectedly, it looks as though the only obstacle to the spa plans has been neatly removed.

However, the casual vacancy in the parish council, created by Barry’s untimely demise, looks set to be scrapped over by at least two other people – one of which appears to be the Jekyll to Barry’s Hyde.

Simmering away elsewhere in this neat little potboiler are the parallel stories of a pikey scrotey family who are being held together by the sheer force of will of a mouthy teenager (played to absolute perfection by Abigail Lawrie), an under-pressure social worker and a beautiful, posh couple who, although we only meet them briefly, are two of the most unpleasant characters in the village.

They’re all introduced and some of the complex threads that link them have been hinted at, but it’s clear there’s a lot more going on under the surface than any of them would care to admit – and that dirty laundry has to come out at some point…

I haven’t read the book, but I’d eat my own head if executive producer JK Rowling let anyone move too far away from her original tale, and if the rest of The Casual Vacancy is anywhere near as enjoyable as this opening episode, I most definitely will be firing up the laptop and placing my order on Amazon.

THE WHO, WHAT, WHEN OF IT

WHAT’S IT CALLED?

The Casual Vacancy

WHEN IS IT ON?

9pm, Sunday February 15th

WHAT CHANNEL?

BBC One

WHO IS IN IT?

Michael Gambon, Emilia Fox, Keeley Hawes, Rory Kinnear, Sonny Ashbourne Serkis (son of actors Lorraine Ashbourne and Andy Serkis), Monica Dolan

WHO SHOULD WATCH IT?

Rowling fans, natch. But also anyone who loves their dramas with characters you either love or hate.

WHO SHOULDN’T WATCH IT?

People who think Harry Potter is still at school…

Farewell to Harry Potter and Withnail legend Richard Griffiths

Star of stage and screen Richard Griffiths has died, aged 65, of complications following heart surgery.

We just wanted to add our small voice to the tributes to the actor who brought the pompous Vernon Dursley to life in the Harry Potter films, but who – for us – will always be Uncle Monty in the glorious Withnail and I.

Harry Potter is dead – long live Daniel Radcliffe

Jon Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe play the same doctor at different heights in his life

Looking at the publicity images for this new comedy drama unsettled us, we have to say.

There, standing side by side, were Jon Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe, older and younger versions of the same character. The pedants in us cried: “They look nothing like each other. Hamm’s face is too long. Radcliffe’s ears are completely different, for god’s sake. Nobody will swallow it. They’re not even the same size.”

And yet swallow it we did. We even went back for more.

A Young Doctor’s Notebook is one of the most watchable, addictive offerings on the box – never mind just from Sky. It’s written by Mark Chappell, Alan Connor and Simon Pye, and if that wasn’t enough to make you tune in, then get this: Harry Potter is dead.

Sorry Hogwarts fans, but this really does prove, once and for all, that Radcliffe (for all his eyebrow issues) has shaken off the robes of the boy wizard once and for all, and is a good enough actor to more than hold his own against the spectacularly famous star of Mad Men.

Set in Russia, it follows the newly qualified doctor Vladimir Bomgard (Radcliffe) as he arrives in the arse-end of nowhere to begin his work tending to the local community. He’s bright-eyed, bushy eyebrowed and desperate to please, but looking like a teenager does little to endear him to his three colleagues, or his patients.

Luckily, his older self (Hamm) is on hand more often than not, to offer timely hints and tips about what he can expect, from the hot tap with a direct line to the centre of the Earth, to the fact all the syphilitic locals really want from their medical care is drops and gargles.

Over the course of four criminally short episodes, the story treads the finest of lines between high comedy and soul-destroying drama, as Bomgard’s naivete is replaced by something darker, more twisted, while at the same time, his older self reveals how much of a toll the pressure of his career choice has taken.

If A Young Doctor’s Notebook has a flaw, it’s that it ends rather abruptly, making us sneakily wonder if more episodes could be on their way. We really, really hope so.

THE WHO, WHAT, WHEN OF IT

WHAT’S IT CALLED?

A Young Doctor’s Notebook

WHEN IS IT ON?

Thursday, December 6^th

WHAT CHANNEL?

Sky Arts 1

WHO’S IN IT?

Daniel Radcliffe (durr)

Jon Hamm (double durr)

WHO SHOULD WATCH IT?

Fans of great comedy and drama – and maybe JK Rowling.

WHO SHOULDN’T WATCH IT?

People who think Harry Potter is real

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

The Indo says ‘woah!’