Olivia Cooke to star in Vanity Fair adaption for ITV

ITV is to air a seven-part adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair.

Olivia Cooke plays Thackeray’s timeless heroine Becky Sharp.

Gwyneth Hughes will adapt Thackeray’s literary classic which is set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars and follows Becky Sharp (Olivia Cooke) as she tries to claw her way out of poverty and scale the heights of English Society. Her story of “villainy, crime, merriment, lovemaking, jilting, laughing, cheating, fighting and dancing”, takes her all the way to the court of King George IV, via the Battle of Waterloo, breaking hearts and losing fortunes as she goes.

“Vanity Fair feels like the perfect classic to adapt for ITV, and Gwyneth Hughes’ stunning scripts bring the novel to life in a way that will really connect with a modern audience. The question was always who would be our perfect Becky Sharp and that is undoubtedly Olivia Cooke! So we are thrilled she has agreed to play Becky, in what promises to be a very exciting new drama for ITV next year.”  – Polly Hill, ITV Head of Drama

Leading production company Mammoth Screen will bring the drama to fruition, with involvement from Amazon Studios. Filming will take place on location in and around London, with additional shooting in Budapest, from September 2017.

Vanity Fair has previously seen a number of film and Television adaptions as well as some radio versions.