Vanity Fair (2018)

You know a novel is a classic when it’s been adapted again and again for the big and small screens. Such is the case for William Makepeace Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair” (1848). Through the years, plenty of handsome actors have stepped into the boots of the drama’s empty-headed cavalry officer Captain Rawdon Crawley. Harry Northrup played him in 1911, Bigelow Cooper did in 1915, as well as George Walsh in 1923 and Conway Tearle in 1932. The same can be said of Alan Badel in 1956, John Colicos in 1961, and Dyson Lovell in 1967. This also applies to Jack Klaff in 1987, Nathaniel Parker in 1998, and James Purefoy in 2004. Of course, we’d be remiss not to list Tom Bateman’s portrayal via the miniseries Vanity Fair (2018). Set after the Napoleonic Wars, this version follows the beautiful yet cynical Becky Sharp (Olivia Cooke) who uses her considerable charms to climb England’s social ladder. Along the way, she encounters Lord Steyne (Anthony Head), William Dobbin (Johnny Flynn), Jos (David Fynn) and John Sedley (Simon Russell Beale). Yet none of these gents can compare to Rawdon’s raw sexuality. The best part of the seven-part saga takes place in episode three when Mr. Bateman is in bed with Ms. Cooke. We can only pressme he’s nude beneath the sheets! At least, we get to admire the big tuft of brown chest hair on his burly build. Suffice it to say, this is one costume drama that would improve if the production used fewer costumes!