Seemingly wealthy Fanny Hill (Rebecca Night) is writing her life story and explaining it to the audience. After the death of her parents, the poor simple country girl follows acquaintance Esther Davis to London Town. Unbeknownst to Fanny, Esther sells her to Mrs. Brown (Alison Steadman) who runs a brothel. Phoebe introduces her to sex and she is led into the world of prostitution. She and young nobleman client Charles Standing fall in love and they run away. They live happily renting a love nest from landlady Mrs. Jones. She loses her virginity to him. She's introduced to Charles' father but she recognizes him. Charles is taken and sent off to the far east by his father. Fanny has a miscarriage. Mrs. Jones threatens her with debtors' prison and forces her to take Mr. H (Hugo Speer) as her client.
This BBC mini-series tries to take the 18th century erotic literature seriously as a costume drama. It's sorta like taking 50 Shades after 200 years and treating it like Shakespeare. As such, I would rather skip the construction of Fanny telling her own story. It takes away from the drama and injects a lighter tone. There is no danger since her final state is revealed right away. Fanny Hill is more known as light erotica of its time. The acting is perfectly fine. While there is nudity, this tries to be more real and it's not such an erotica. I doubt the material works best this way. I am fine with attempting to make Fanny darker fare but this is TV and it's not doing that anyways.
This BBC mini-series tries to take the 18th century erotic literature seriously as a costume drama. It's sorta like taking 50 Shades after 200 years and treating it like Shakespeare. As such, I would rather skip the construction of Fanny telling her own story. It takes away from the drama and injects a lighter tone. There is no danger since her final state is revealed right away. Fanny Hill is more known as light erotica of its time. The acting is perfectly fine. While there is nudity, this tries to be more real and it's not such an erotica. I doubt the material works best this way. I am fine with attempting to make Fanny darker fare but this is TV and it's not doing that anyways.