Jane Andrews: TV tonight — drama revisits the life of jane andrews and Thomas Cressman
jane andrews is the subject of a new four-part drama that begins tonight with its first episode at 9pm and will also be available on an online platform. The Lady follows Andrews’s journey from working-class beginnings into the royal household and revisits the relationship that ended with the death of her then‑lover, Thomas Cressman.
Jane Andrews on screen: the series, cast and performances
The Lady is led by Natalie Dormer as Sarah Ferguson and Mia McKenna‑Bruce as Jane Andrews, with Ed Speleers playing Thomas Cressman. Reviews single out Mia McKenna‑Bruce as an excellent rising star and note strong work from Dormer, describing her portrayal of Sarah Ferguson as performed with aplomb.
How the four‑parter frames Andrews’s life and decline
The drama is structured as a four‑parter that opens with a working‑class Jane trying to fit into a new royal world while managing worsening mental health. The series is expected to dramatise a fictionalised version of the relationship between Sarah Ferguson and Jane Andrews, trace Jane’s early career beginnings to working at Buckingham Palace, and chart her romantic relationships that culminate in the death of Thomas Cressman.
Who Thomas Cressman was and the couple’s history
Thomas Cressman was the son of former Aston Villa chairman Harry Cressman, the youngest of three siblings and born in 1960. He later became a stockbroker. By the time he began dating Jane Andrews in 1998 he had left finance, was running a business selling car accessories and moved among the "upper echelons" of society. The pair were introduced by a mutual friend, dated for a few years and Jane moved into Cressman’s flat in Fulham.
The 2000 trip, the phone call and the fatal attack
In September 2000 the couple travelled to Italy and then to Thomas’s family villa in the French Riviera. Jane believed the trip would lead to an engagement and to marriage and children, but during the trip Thomas told her he had no intention of marrying her. Back in London they argued, and on 17 September 2000 Thomas 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 Thomas was sleeping, he was beaten with a cricket bat and stabbed in the chest.
Trial, diagnosis, escape and release
Jane Andrews was later found guilty of Thomas Cressman’s murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 2001 she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. In 2009 she escaped from prison, was caught three days later and returned to custody. She was released from prison on licence in June 2015.
Tonight’s broadcast and other television highlights
The first episode of The Lady airs tonight at 9pm and the series will also be available to stream. The evening’s wider television listings include a Premier League fixture between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool at 1pm, followed by Tottenham versus Arsenal at 4. 25pm; a Women’s FA Cup fifth‑round match, Chelsea against Manchester United at 1pm and Liverpool against Everton at 4pm; and a Six Nations match between France and Italy at 2. 20pm from Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille.
Other programming noted for the night includes a screening of Breathless at 12. 35am, a concert from Lisbon featuring the Gulbenkian Orchestra conducted by Aziz Shokakimov performing Ravel’s La Valse, Debussy’s La Mer and the symphonic poem Vltava by Bedřich Smetana, and awards coverage highlighting nominees such as One Battle After Another, Sinners, Marty Supreme and Hamnet, with hosts presenting the evening and a musical performance by KPop Demon Hunters.
Serialized drama highlights elsewhere include a penultimate episode in which a character called Saintly Simon confides in Ralph and experiences hallucinations while a rival faction descends into murderous groupthink with lines such as "I’m bored of worrying about being cruel … it’s time to get whacks in" and cries of "Kill the beast. Cut his throat. Spill his blood …" A quiz programme narrows 12 contestants to a final four through a mathematical maze and a memory game tied to the periodic table, one contestant being an ambulance technician named Ollie who once remembered every number plate on her estate as a child.
For viewers focused on tonight’s drama, The Lady offers a serialized retelling of jane andrews’s life and the relationship that ended with Thomas Cressman’s death, foregrounding the performances of Mia McKenna‑Bruce and Natalie Dormer as it unpacks the events leading to the trial and Andrews’s subsequent prison history.
