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J.K. Rowling's 'The Casual Vacancy' TV adaptation will premiere in the US this April

The miniseries adaptation of Rowling's novel will air on HBO in the US. It will premiere on the BBC later this month.

'The Casual Vacancy' is by J.K. Rowling.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

An American premiere date has been set for the TV adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s novel “The Casual Vacancy.” 

“Vacancy” is being adapted by the BBC and stars actors Michael Gambon (who starred as Dumbledore in the “Harry Potter” film series), Rory Kinnear, and Keeley Hawes, among others, and is airing in the UK on Feb. 15. HBO has announced it will air the three-hour miniseries adaptation of the 2012 novel on April 29 and 30. 

The book centers on the English town of Pagford, where a member of the parish council dies unexpectedly. The fight over who will replace him turns town residents against one another. 

Monitor fiction critic Yvonne Zipp wrote of the book, “The novel is satirical and pointed in its depiction of claustrophobic small-town English life… as a satire of English village life, it's quite readable… most of the teens are more vivid than their elders.” 

Rowling is of course the author behind the “Harry Potter” series, and has published the mysteries “The Cuckoo’s Calling” and “The Silkworm,” both of which focus on private investigator Cormoran Strike, under the pen name Robert Galbraith. (It wasn’t until after “Cuckoo” was published that it was revealed Rowling was behind the novel.) According to the BBC, the author said last year that she’s planning at least six more books about the detective. 

The author is also writing the screenplay for the upcoming film “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” a book written by Rowling that’s set in the “Potter” universe and is presented as if it’s a textbook used by Harry and his friends in class. According to the movie’s studio Warner Bros., “Fantastic” will be a trilogy and will center on the textbook’s fictional author Newt Scamander, who is an expert on magical animals.

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