Vanity Fair: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Set in the Napoleonic Wars, Vanity Fair is a rich and resplendent satire of English society in which there is a great quantity of eating and drinking, making love and jilting, laughing and the contrary, smoking, cheating, fighting, dancing and fiddling.

Becky Sharp, the penniless, orphaned daughter of an artist and a French opera dancer, and Amelia Sedley, the sheltered child of a rich City Merchant are unlikely, but firm friends. From the drawing rooms of Regency London to the fields of Waterloo, Vanity Fair tells their story.

Becky, an irrepressible schemer one of the most seductive social climbers of all time who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. While her friend, the meek and mild Amelia, pursues the opposite course. In the end both girls get what they want but not quite in the way they planned.

Series details

• Title: Vanity Fair
• Format: Scripted
• Language: English
• Genres: Drama
• Premiere date: 1987-09-06
• Final broadcast date listed: 1987-12-20
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: BBC One
• Network country: United Kingdom
• Typical episode runtime: 30 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 24346
• IMDb ID: tt0092474

Cast and credited roles

• Eve Matheson — Becky Sharp
• Rebecca Saire — Amelia Sedley

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 1987-09-06; final listed air date 1987-12-20; episode order: 16.

Source and licence

Adapted from Vanity Fair on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.