Episode 2 (The Casual Vacancy) praised the cast, in particular Abigail Lawrie, Rory Kinnear and Rufus Jones Ceri Radford of "The Telegraph" gave the episode 4 out of 5 stars, despite some reservations about the digressions, saying: Episode 2 (The Casual Vacancy) "Episode 2" is the second episode of the British miniseries "The Casual Vacancy" based on the novel of the same title by J. K. Rowling. The parish council election approaches and Pagford is on tenterhooks awaiting the next post from 'the Ghost of Barry Fairbrother'. Who is the Ghost, and what will they say? Is anyone in the village safe from humiliation? As
Episode 1068 BBC iPlayer for thirty days after its broadcast. In its original broadcast, the episode received a seven day rating of 4.93 million viewers, which is an increase of 240,000 viewers from the previous episode. Ratings rose to 5.16 million viewers after a 28-day period. In the week of broadcast, episode 1068 is the seventeenth most-watched programme on BBC One. A reporter for "The Times" chose Episode 1068 for their "critics' choice" of the day. They felt that the episode resembled recent NHS conditions, stating "Sometimes, life imitates art." Sophie Dainty of "Digital Spy" described the attack on Zoe as "frightening".