The Casual Vacancy: J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter follow-up becomes an HBO mini

When J.K. Rowling brought her beloved Harry Potter book series to a close in 2007, fans wondered where her unique literary mind might wander next.

Publishing the Potter spinoff The Tales of Beedle the Bard a year later, Rowling then turned her attention to a strictly grownup audience with 2012’s best-selling The Casual Vacancy. Now the prolific author has teamed up with the BBC and HBO to adapt the brooding tale of small town discord into a three-part, two-night event of the same name.

The Casual Vacancy is set in a fictional and picturesque English hamlet called Pagford, where, behind its pretty facade, issues of class, age and gender are simmering to a boil over the future of Sweetlove House — namely to keep it a community center designed to aid the town’s most downtrodden residents or turn it into a high-end spa.

That’s where the titular “casual vacancy” comes in.

When one of Sweetlove House’s most vocal supporters,  Pagford Parrish Councillor Barry Fairbrother (Penny Dreadful‘s Rory Kinnear) dies unexpectedly, necessitating a replacement, blog posts begin appearing that suggests dead men (or someone pretending to be one) really do tell tales. Much to the consternation of the people looking to fill the vacancy.

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Michael Gambon as Howard Mollison on HBO’s The Casual Vacancy. ©2014 Steffan Hill/HBO

Michael Gambon, who played Professor Dumbledore in six of the Harry Potter film adaptations, stars as Council President — and spa proponent — Howard Mollison.

The Casual Vacancy premieres April 29 at 8pm on HBO.

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Lori just hasn't been the same since "thirtysomething" and "Northern Exposure" went off the air.