OLDHAM'S Olivia Cooke dazzled as timeless heroine Becky Sharp in the first episode of ITV's Vanity Fair.

An alumni of Oldham Theatre Workshop, 24-year-old Olivia is hot from Hollywood following a lead role in Steven Spielberg's VR adventure movie, Ready Player One.

But after last night she was credited with a very charismatic portrayal of the lead in the new seven-part ITV adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair which also stars fellow Oldhamer and OTW export, Suranne Jones, as Miss Pinkerton.

The literary classic - reworked by screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes - is set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, and follows timeless heroine Becky Sharp, as she attempts to claw her way out of poverty and scale the heights of English society.

It was an opportunity Cooke says couldn't turn down - although she admits the prospect made her nervous too.

"I felt an overwhelming sense of gratefulness and excitement to do the job," said Olivia, who has swapped the hills of Oldham for the high rise skyline of New York where she now resides.

"But also, 'Oh, now I've got to do it. They've cast the wrong person. I don't have it in me to play this part. She is so iconic'. The pressure of all of that."

"Everyone has their version of Becky Sharp in their head. She is so beloved. So after the joy of getting the role, I felt an impending dread of actually having to play her.

"You want to get it right, but you also don't want to repeat versions of Becky that have been done before."

A story of 'villainy, crime, merriment, jilting, laughing, cheating' and all else - was it a challenge to make the character's less likeable sides likeable?

"She's incredibly powerful in her choices, yet her choices and herself are completely flawed," says Cooke, who had to sing for the part.

"[But] it's going to be different with everyone, in regards to their views of women and certain women that they have come across, or certain elements of Becky that strike a chord for you.

"I really relished being selfish, and naughty, and mischievous, and dastardly at times," she adds.

"I really, really enjoyed it and I wanted to push it more, but I was aware that I had to bring it back sometimes, just for British telly."

Joined by a star-studded cast, including the likes of Johnny Flynn, Martin Clunes, Frances de la Tour, Michael Palin, Claudia Jessie and Tom Bateman, Cooke is certainly in good company.

But one person she couldn't convince to get in on the action was her mum, Lindsy.

"I was going to get my mum in to be an extra in one of the ball scenes, but I think she would have died of embarrassment so I thought better of that," reveals the actor.

"But she's really proud. She says, 'Everyone keeps asking on the street about Vanity Fair and what you are like. You're just my Olivia!'

"She's proud, but only as proud as any mum would be if her daughter is successful in any field."

Vanity Fair continues on ITV tonight (Monday), and on Sundays for the next five weeks.