The Lady Itv: the lady itv dramatises Jane Andrews and the death of Thomas Cressman
the lady itv arrives as a four-part drama that retells the rise of Jane Andrews from a working-class childhood in Lincolnshire to employment with Sarah Ferguson, and the volatile relationship that ended with the death of Thomas Cressman. The series matters now because it lands amid renewed scrutiny of Sarah Ferguson after revelations linked to Jeffrey Epstein and an arrest connected to allegations about him.
The Lady Itv is a four-part, partially fictionalised portrayal led by Dormer and McKenna-Bruce
The Lady Itv is presented as a four-parter and is described in context as "partially fictionalised. " Mia McKenna-Bruce plays Jane Andrews and Natalie Dormer plays the former Duchess of York; show writer Debbie O’Malley called Andrews’s trajectory a "toxic fairytale. " The producers are those who worked on The Crown, and Ed Speleers plays Thomas Cressman in the dramatisation.
Jane Andrews: from a Grimsby terrace to the Old Bailey and Her Majesty’s Prison
Andrews was born in Lincolnshire in 1967 into a working-class family whose financial difficulties shaped her childhood. When she was eight, debts forced her parents to sell their home and move to a smaller place in Grimsby with an outdoor toilet. Her story has been framed as a climb from a terrace in Grimsby to Buckingham Palace, and then on to the Old Bailey and Her Majesty’s Prison after she was jailed for the murder of her boyfriend.
Who Thomas Cressman was and how the relationship broke down
Thomas Cressman was born in 1960, the youngest of three siblings and the son of former Aston Villa chairman Harry Cressman. He trained as a stockbroker and by 1998 had left finance to run a business selling car accessories, moving in what is described as the "upper echelons" of society. The pair were introduced by a mutual friend, dated for a few years and Andrews moved into Cressman's flat in Fulham.
The relationship was described at trial as "volatile. " Andrews made claims about Cressman's "extreme sexual tastes" and alleged "violence. " In September 2000 the couple travelled to Italy and on to Thomas's family villa in the French Riviera, where Andrews believed an engagement might follow; Cressman told her he had no intention of marrying her. After returning to London they argued and, on 17 September 2000, Cressman called the police saying, "We are rowing, someone is going to get hurt unless… I would like police to come and split us up. I would like someone here to stop us hurting each other. " The police did not attend and later that evening, while Cressman was sleeping, he was beaten with a cricket bat and stabbed in the chest. Andrews was later found guilty of his murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Aftermath: diagnosis, escape, release and the series’ fraught timing
Following conviction, Andrews was diagnosed in 2001 with borderline personality disorder. In 2009 she escaped from prison but was caught three days later and returned to custody; she was released from prison on licence in June 2015. Twenty-five years on from her trial, her tale is now the subject of the new dramatisation.
The timing of the drama has been complicated by fresh attention on Sarah Ferguson. Newly released emails linked to Jeffrey Epstein revived scrutiny of Ferguson's contact with the financier, even after his 2008 conviction for procuring a girl under the age of 18 for prostitution. On Thursday, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Ferguson's ex-husband, was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office amid claims he shared sensitive information with Epstein while serving as the UK’s trade envoy; he has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. Natalie Dormer has distanced herself from promotion of the project after a leaked email showed Ferguson had called Epstein a "steadfast, generous and supreme friend" despite earlier claims she had severed ties; Dormer said, "Since completing the project, new information has come to light that makes it impossible for me to reconcile my values with Sarah Ferguson's behaviour, which I believe is inexcusable, " and she said she would donate her salary to charities supporting childhood victims of sexual abuse. Mia McKenna-Bruce has said the show "is Jane's story, it's not Fergie's story. " The producers chose not to include Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in the dramatisation.
Where The Lady sits in a busy television and cultural schedule
The Lady arrives alongside a packed cultural schedule that includes major film awards night nominees—One Battle After Another, Sinners, Marty Supreme and Hamnet are singled out as most nominated—and a host presentation by Alan Cumming. Other British films noted are I Swear, The Ballad of Wallis Island and Pillion, and the night will feature a performance by KPop Demon Hunters.
On sport and culture this week: the Winter Olympics has drawn headlines from a biathlete's confession of infidelity to a highland-fling ice routine by Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson, and the closing ceremony at the Verona Arena will hand the 2030 baton to the French Alps. In classical music, the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, conducted by Aziz Shokakimov, will play Ravel's La Valse, Debussy's La Mer and the symphonic poem Vltava by Bedřich Smetana. Television drama highlights elsewhere include a penultimate episode in which Saintly Simon confides in Ralph, experiences hallucinations, and Jack's rival faction—saying, "I'm bored of worrying about being cruel … it's time to get whacks in"—succumbs to murderous groupthink: "Kill the beast. Cut his throat. Spill his blood …"
In lighter competition programming, Alan Carr and Susie Dent oversee a test of 12 contestants whittled down to a final four with rounds such as a complex mathematical maze and a memory game based on the periodic table; an ambulance technician named Ollie once remembered every number plate on her estate as a child and is singled out for the memory challenge. For film buffs, Breathless screens at 12. 35am and is noted alongside a new film by Richard Linklater about the making of Breathless; Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 film of that name stars Jean-Paul Belmondo as Michel and Jean Seberg as Patricia and epitomises the French New Wave. Weekend sport listings also highlight Premier League fixtures at 1pm and 4. 25pm, a women's FA Cup fifth-round match at 1pm and a Liverpool v Everton fixture at 4pm, plus a Six Nations match between France and Italy at 2. 20pm from Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille.
