Classy class clash

VANITY FAIR ITV, 9pm

WE Brits love a good period drama, full of colourful costumes and quirky characters with their olde-worlde ways.

Clashes of class and culture, a good love story or two, with some deception and scheming thrown in for good measure.

William Makepeace Thackeray’s epic 1848 novel has long been captivating source material for TV and filmmakers, and this latest version is right up there with the best of them. It stars Olivia Cooke as anti-hero Becky Sharp, a clever and cunning young woman determined to rise above her station and find success in society life.

Michael Palin appears (very briefly) as the author and puppet master Thackeray, and the cast also features heavy hitters such as Suranne Jones, Martin Clunes, Frances de la Tour and Tom Bateman.

Last night, we saw Becky banished from Miss Pinkerton’s Academy for Young Ladies and – after failing to trick her friend Amelia’s dim but wealthy brother Jos into marriage – end up as governess for the tight-fisted MP Sir Pitt Crawley.

Clearly not happy to stay at that level for long, Becky sets her sights on becoming his secretary or daughter-in-law, and is soon best pals with his wealthy sister.

It might be 170 years old, but it still feels fresh (although we could’ve done without the incongruous modern music choices).

And Frances de la Tour’s Aunt Matilda is straight from the Downton Abbey dowager school of glorious withering put-downs and outrageous behaviour.