Fanny Hill (Rebecca Night) begins telling her story as a young woman who was born to poor but honest parents.
She stumbles upon her friend Esther Davies (Emma Stansfield) while at her parents grave, who brings her to join a group of "working girls" under the madam, Mrs. Brown.
On 30 December 2005, Hannah Jones from the Western Mail reported that Andrew Davies would start writing a television adaptation of John Cleland's 18th-century novel Fanny Hill the following year.
[1] In May 2006, Ben Dowell from The Guardian stated that Fanny Hill had been commissioned by BBC Fiction Controller Jane Tranter, and it would be produced by Sally Head through her own production company.
[3] He expressed his delight at introducing a new audience to the novel, while executive producer Eleanor Moran commented "Andrew's adaptation brings out the joie de vivre of the novel, and is full of his trademark good humour and naughty wit.
[9] The Guardian's Nancy Banks-Smith gave the serial a positive review, claiming that Fanny Hill "was unexpectedly fresh and charming".
"[10] Matt Warman from The Daily Telegraph was disappointed that Fanny was "not as conspicuously erudite as Cleland's novel", but praised Davies for giving her "real emotional depth".
[11] Hermione Eyre, writing for The Independent, thought the miniseries "was more authentic than any period drama" she had seen on television that year and she called it "good-humoured".
She stated "All the sex was there, but Fanny (Rebecca Night) herself did not get to describe it, which meant that the joy of the book – it is her unrepentant lasciviousness that distinguishes her from, say, Moll Flanders – was lost.
"[13] For her work on the show, Lucinda Wright earned a nomination for Best Costume Design at the 2008 British Academy Television Craft Awards.
In this BBC adaptation, Fanny Hill's on camera moments are direct in nature after the events she experienced, unlike the novel's epistolary, first-person account of her adventures to the unnamed "Madam."
In the serial, the man who Mrs. Brown first arranges to take Fanny's maidenhead turns out to be Charles' father, while in the text, the two men are not related.
Within the novel, a man referred to as the "good natured Dick" by Fanny and the girls at Mrs. Cole's brothel, has been entirely replaced in the BBC film adaptation.