Monica Dolan

The Casual Vacancy: BAFTA Q&A

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“OVER my dead body, Andrew…”

Rory Kinnear as Barry Fairbrother in BBC1’s new three-part adaptation of JK Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy.

Jo Rowling’s first novel for an adult audience, published in 2012, became a global best-seller with over six million copies sold to date.

The 3 x 60 minute television adaptation, written by Sarah Phelps and directed by Jonny Campbell, begins on BBC1 at 9pm on Sunday Feb 15.

Set in what appears to be the idyllic English village of Pagford.

Those who have read the 500-page book will know that it deals with how we live today, including issues of community and responsibility.

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Appropriate Adult: Fred West Drama

Emily Watson as Janet Leach and Dominic West as Fred West

“THIS is a true story. What follows is based on extensive research, interviews and published accounts.

“Some scenes have been created for the purpose of dramatisation.”

So begins Appropriate Adult, ITV1’s two-part Fred West drama.

Or rather the story of how trainee social worker Janet Leach was plunged into the nightmare world of serial killers Fred and Rose West.

I watched both 90 minute instalments of the two-part production in one sitting earlier this month and was hugely impressed by the way it had been handled.

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U Be Dead

David Morrissey and Tara Fitzgerald as Jan and Debbie

YOU’VE got a mobile phone, right? Facebook page? Twitter?

Perhaps you’re even one of those people on social networking sites who like to let others know which coffee shop or train station you’re passing through?

“The whole Orwellian Big Brother thing is that it would be imposed on us by a government,” actor David Morrissey told me recently.

“But what he didn’t realise is that we would impose it on ourselves.

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