The Transmission and Critical Reception of Vanity Fair

Abstract

The major publication for the Vanity Fair serial was a glossy brochure issued by the BBC. Featuring photographs from the production, and details of the cast and production team, its aim was to achieve recommendations from TV reviewers that viewers should watch the series, and to stimulate preview features, articles about members of the cast and the production. The text of the brochure begins:

This is the most ambitious production ever mounted for the BBC-1 Classic Serial slot on Sunday evenings. The sixteen half hour episodes, stretching from September to Christmas, have all the scope and visual bravura to match Thackeray’s colourful novel. The passions, the betrayals, and the rivalries of this boisterous classic are played out against the glamorous backdrop of European society during the Napoleonic Wars. Location work includes such major set pieces as: Vauxhall Gardens, the Duchess of Richmond’s Ball, and the Battle of Waterloo.

This brochure was supplemented by standard press-handouts listing career details of those principally involved in the production, and other publicity puffs.