ITV’s ‘Vanity Fair’ adds Suranne Jones and Michael Palin to all-star cast


While initial filming has begun in Budapest on Vanity Fair, Gwyneth Hughes’ adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s epic story of love and intrigue during the Napoleonic Wars, producers continue to add to an already stellar cast which includes Martin Clunes (Doc Martin), Tom Bateman (Murder On The Orient Express), Claudia Jessie (Line of Duty) and Frances de La Tour (Vicious) with the announcement that Suranne Jones (Scott & Bailey, Doctor Foster) and Michael Palin (Monty Python, Remember Me and host of just about every great travel series coming out of the UK for decades) have been added to the cast.

Olivia Cooke (Secret of Crickley Hall, Blackout, Bates Motel, Ready Player One) will take on the role as the scheming Becky Sharp as  she attempts to escape poverty and ascend the heights of English Society where her considerable charm and beauty takes her all the way to the court of King George IV all the while breaking hearts and losing her fortune along the way with Clunes playing villainous aristocrat Sir Pitt Crawley. Palin will play the part of Thackeray narrating the action which is taken from the author’s 1848 classic with Jones playing the snobbish, name-dropping society lady Miss Pinkerton.

Aside from Gwyneth Hughes’ adaptation, the 7-part drama for ITV will be directed by James Strong (Broadchurch) and produced by War And Peace producer Julia Stannard for Mammoth Screen, the production company that has brought us Poldark and Victoria.


In: Drama