"Vanity Fair" (1967) TV mini-series

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

1 October 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Aristocrat | Price Of Fame | Social Climber | Manipulation | British

Awards:

Won Primetime Emmy.

Cast

Susan Hampshire	...	Becky Sharp (5 episodes, 1967)
Dyson Lovell	...	Rawdon Crawley (5 episodes, 1967)
Bryan Marshall	...	Captain Dobbin (5 episodes, 1967)
Marilyn Taylerson	...	Amelia Osborne (5 episodes, 1967)
Roy Marsden	...	George Osborne (4 episodes, 1967)
John Moffatt	...	Jos Sedley (4 episodes, 1967)
Barbara Couper	...	Miss Matilda Crawley (3 episodes, 1967)
Barbara Leake	...	Mrs. Sedley (3 episodes, 1967)
Michael Rothwell	...	Pitt Crawley (3 episodes, 1967)
Howard Taylor	...	Horrocks (3 episodes, 1967)
John Welsh	...	Sir Pitt Crawley (3 episodes, 1967)

Runtime:

50 min (5 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Royal Crescent, Bath, Somerset, England, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

The BBC's first color television production.

Movie Connections:

Version of Becky Sharp (1935)

Sparkling early colour production

Vanity Fair was I think BBC's first colour serial, made in 1967 with Susan Hampshire and Roy Marsden, both looking impossibly young, as Becky Sharp and George Osbourne.

Thackaray's novel is set in the Napoleonic Wars and cries out for colour and life, both of which this five parter delivers. From the opening with a puppet show to lovely performances, largely from actors now forgotten, this adaptation is very good and wears its age well.

As Becky, Susan Hampshire isn't as obviously scheming as Eve Matheson was twenty years later, but she radiates charm with a knowing smile. It is an interpretation of the character which works well.