With an all-star cast featuring everyone from Michael Palin to Suranne Jones to Martin Clunes, Vanity Fair could become one of ITV's biggest dramas of the year.

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Tackling William Makepeace Thackeray's Victorian novel for this seven-part ITV and Amazon drama will be Mammoth Screen, the production company behind successful period dramas Poldark and Victoria.

Vanity Fair is adapted by Gwyneth Hughes, the screenwriter who penned true crime drama Dark Angel. Broadchurch director James Strong is also on board.

But what's it about? When is it on TV? And who plays who? Here's everything you need to know:


When is Vanity Fair on TV?

Vanity Fair began airing on ITV on Sunday 2nd September at 9pm with episode two airing at 9pm on Monday 3rd September.

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It will continue airing the rest of its series (episodes three to seven) on Sunday evenings – a direct clash with the BBC's Bodyguard starring Keeley Hawes.


What is Vanity Fair about?

Thackeray's literary classic is set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, and follows our beautiful and charming antihero Becky Sharp as she attempts to escape poverty and ascend the heights of English Society.

The trailer shows Olivia Cooke as Becky, lounging in an evening dress with one foot resting on a globe. The slogan is: "Their world. Her rules."

It was first adapted as a silent movie in 1911 and has also been a movie starring Reese Witherspoon, a fifties BBC serial, and a nineties miniseries featuring Natasha Little.


Who stars in Vanity Fair?

Becky Sharp is played by Olivia Cooke, star of Steven Spielberg movie Ready Player one and of the TV series Bates Motel.

Michael Palin, the legendary comedian and travel presenter, will play the part of author (and narrator) Thackeray, while Doctor Foster star Suranne Jones will appear as the snobbish, name-dropping society lady Miss Pinkerton.

Martin Clunes is set to star as the villainous aristocrat Sir Pitt Crawley, while Tom Bateman will play the role of the empty-headed cavalry officer Captain Rawdon Crawley. Charlie Rowe is taking on the part of the "luckless soldier" George Osborne.

Claudia Jessie will play Becky’s confidante Amelia Sedley, with Simon Russell Beale and Outnumber's Claire Skinner as her parents, and David Fynn as her brother Joss.

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Johnny Flynn, star of Netflix's Lovesick, will play the genial Dobbin, while Frances de La Tour will play Miss Matilda Crawley.


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