Lara Pulver as Daisy Mole (née Flowers)
Who Is She? Marigolds half sister and eventually Adrians wife after a prolonged affair between them in The Weapons Of Mass Destruction. By the time of The Prostrate Years, they have a five year old daughter but their marriage is crumbling, culminating in Daisy running off with Hugo Fairfax-Lycett.
Why Lara Pulver? Daisy is always shown as a particularly outspoken and strong woman as well as fairly sexual (her father at one point jokingly describes her as a hedonist). I thought of Lara Pulver for this part as her portrayal of Irene Adler in Sherlock is a character in a vaguely similar mould. Plus shes got a modest yet strong back catalogue of dramatic roles that show shes certainly got the talent for a part like this. Throughout the books featuring her, frequent references are made to Daisy modelling her appearance on Nigella Lawson which is why I initially thought of Belinda Stewart-Wilson (The Inbetweeners) as a candidate but shes passed the point where she can convincingly play a character in her thirties (roughly Daisys age in The Weapons Of Mass Destruction) and just has too much of a mature look to her.
Sophie Winkleman as Pandora Braithwaite
Who Is She? Adrians first love and closest friend, Pandora has risen to be an incredibly influential MP who has a doctorate and is fluent in several languages, as well as being a personal friend of Gordon Brown. Bernard describes her as having brains, beauty, and thighs you could crack a nut with. But despite her success, she continues to be the person closest to Adrian, sticking by him through his suffering prostate cancer and the breakdown of his marriage. The book ends with the possibility of her restarting her relationship with Adrian and contains foreshadowing of her being involved in the MP's expenses scandal in the near future.
Why Sophie Winkleman? I briefly thought of Lara Pulver for this role before deciding shed be better as Daisy and knew Id want someone similar to broadcaster Victoria Coren (who I think is strangely like Pandora). Then I watched a repeat of Peep Show and it struck me that Sophie Winkleman would be a good choice. Her character in Peep Show was snobbish and naive but shes played a wide variety of characters beyond that and it would be interesting to see her tackle the role of an older and more jaded Pandora than weve seen in other adaptations.