‘Vanity Fair’ characters guide: Who’s who?

Here’s a brief guide to who’s who in ITV’s lavish new adaptation of Vanity Fair.

Based on English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray’s classic 1847 novel, the seven-part mini-series aired in the UK last autumn and is now available to watch in the USA exclusively on Amazon Prime.

 

Becky Sharp

Played by Olivia Cooke, Becky Sharp wants nothing more in life than to climb up the ranks of English Society.

Resilient and strong-willed, she is obsessed with status and wealth and will stop at nothing to make her mark on the world. Becky can be deceitful and cruel but is endlessly resourceful and determined to succeed.

 

Amelia Sedley

Played by Claudia Jessie, Amelia Sedley is good-natured, gentle and popular. She only wants to be married and happy.

Amelia is naïve and blindly loyal to George Osborne, the man she has planned to marry since childhood, despite his many faults.

 

Jos Sedley

Played by David Fynn, Jos Sedley is Amelia’s brother and is exceedingly vain and self-important. He is a bachelor on service in India as the collector of Boggley Wallah.

Whilst he has made a considerable fortune in India and wears ridiculously extravagant clothes, Jos is hopeless around women and an utter coward.

 

George Osborne

Played by Charlie Rowe, George Osborne has been promised to Amelia Sedley since childhood.

Confident, selfish and snobbish, George gambles and squanders his money away.

Whilst he loves Amelia, the lack of chase bores him and he loves himself far more, taking advantage of her unceasing affection.

 

William Dobbin

Played by Johnny Flynn, William Dobbin is tall, gangly and impossibly shy.

Selfless and sincere, Dobbin is hopelessly in love with Amelia, but would never admit it.

He wants to do everything in his power to make sure that she marries George who is his best friend.

 

Rawdon Crawley

Played by Tom Bateman, Rawdon Crawley is Sir Pitt’s dashing youngest son.

He is a good-natured soldier and very fond of women, horses and gambling.

Rawdon is not very bright but is wealthy Aunt Matilda Crawley’s favourite nephew and soon falls for Becky’s charms.

 

Sir Pitt Crawley

Played by Martin Clunes, Sir Pitt is an ignorant, boorish and disreputable baronet and owner of the Queen’s Crawley mansion in darkest Hampshire.

His finances are in a state of disrepair; he is stingy and dirty and treats his wife with total indifference. But it does not take long for him to become very fond of Becky.

 

Miss Matilda Crawley

Played by Frances de la Tour, Miss Matilda Crawley is Sir Pitt’s unmarried sister who has inherited her mother’s large fortune.

She is everyone’s favourite aunt – primarily because they want to be part of her will – but she despises them all and is vain, snooty and fierce.

 

The original novel is available to buy on Amazon.

Vanity Fair is available to watch in the USA exclusively on Amazon Prime.