But it is not in the least bit cheery or uplifting. Rather, it provides an intriguing and bleak look at class warfare, British country style. Behind a thicket of pastoral harmony, there is a messy power struggle between the prim Pagford bourgeoisie and its have-nots in outlying low-income areas.

The title refers to a vacancy on the parish council caused by the sudden death of Barry Fairbrother (Rory Kinnear), a man in his 40s with a wife and four children who is very popular in the less snobbish parts of Pagford.

Barry was an active and ardent do-gooder who helped run the community center, which is one of the more unusual ones in Britain. In the 19th century, a benefactor named Sweetlove donated a grand mansion in town to the people of Pagford, and Sweetlove House became a full-service community center, with programs for underprivileged youths and drug addicts, most of whom live outside Pagford in housing projects known as the Fields.

Everyone is shocked by Barry’s death and many are devastated, but the loss comes at a particularly convenient time for Howard Mollison (Mr. Gambon), a successful grocer and chairman of the board overseeing Sweetlove House. Howard and his wife, Shirley (Julia McKenzie), are determined to return the property to the Sweetlove heirs, who would turn it into an upscale wellness spa.

The Sweetloves want the income and Howard and Shirley are eager to curry favor with their upper-class neighbors. But mostly, Howard and his ilk also want to shut down the community center to keep its undesirable clientele from spoiling the village’s quaint gentility. In their plan, social services would be moved to cheaper sites outside town. Barry told allies on the parish board that this kind of social gerrymandering is “apartheid.”