Jane Andrews portrayed in four-part drama The Lady as Mia McKenna-Bruce wins praise
The new four-part drama The Lady stars Natalie Dormer and Mia McKenna-Bruce and follows the life of jane andrews, the duchess’s former dresser who was convicted for murdering her boyfriend. The series opens on a working‑class Jane trying to fit into a royal world while managing worsening mental health, a framing that shapes the four-parter’s early episodes.
Casting and performances: Natalie Dormer and Mia McKenna-Bruce
Natalie Dormer plays Sarah Ferguson with aplomb, bringing a measured presence opposite Mia McKenna-Bruce, who is described as an excellent rising star. Reviews have singled out McKenna-Bruce’s performance; one headline reads The Lady review — Mia McKenna-Bruce excels in this Jane Andrews drama. Hollie Richardson is among the writers who has highlighted those performances in the evening’s coverage.
How Jane Andrews's story is dramatised in The Lady
The Lady begins with the working‑class Jane attempting to fit in with a new royal world, while the narrative foregrounds her worsening mental health. The drama traces the arc that led to Jane Andrews’s conviction for the murder of her boyfriend, using the four-part structure to move from adaptation pressures to darker personal collapse.
Critical lines and a grim retelling of a society scandal
The series has been framed as a revival of a society scandal, a grim retelling that re-examines the relationship between the duchess and her former dresser. Critics note the timing of the casting choices and the way the drama situates the scandal close to the duchess, with narrative emphasis on the intimacy and dislocation Jane felt in the royal household.
TV highlights and entertainment tonight, including BAFTA front‑runners
Alongside The Lady, the evening’s coverage lists the most nominated films for the night: One Battle After Another, Sinners, Marty Supreme and Hamnet. The line-up also asks how British films I Swear, The Ballad of Wallis Island and Pillion will fare; that portion of the night is hosted by Alan Cumming and includes a performance by KPop Demon Hunters. Portions of the listings are credited HR in the guide.
Other scheduled drama, documentaries and competitions
Television picks include a penultimate episode of a drama in which Saintly Simon confides in Ralph, is beset by hallucinations and faces murderous groupthink from Jack’s rival faction, which declares, “I’m bored of worrying about being cruel … it’s time to get whacks in. ” The episode’s closing notes warn that a storm is coming and someone is about to be martyred — Kill the beast. Cut his throat. Spill his blood … — a passage credited in that preview by Ali Catterall.
Quizzes, classic cinema and music on the schedule
Alan Carr and Susie Dent oversee a contest that pares 12 brainboxes down to a final four, starting with a complex mathematical maze and followed by a mind‑bending memory game based on the periodic table; Ellen E Jones highlights an ambulance technician named Ollie who could remember every number plate on her estate as a child. A late screening of Breathless is listed at 12. 35am on Talking Pictures TV, introduced as Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 classic in which Jean‑Paul Belmondo’s impulsive on‑the‑run criminal Michel woos Jean Seberg’s American student Patricia; that note is credited to Simon Wardell.
Sports and live events: football, rugby and the Winter Olympics roundup
Live sport on the schedule includes Premier League football: Nottingham Forest v Liverpool at 1pm on Sky Sports Main Event, followed by Tottenham v Arsenal at 4. 25pm. Women’s FA Cup fifth‑round football lists Chelsea v Man Utd at 1pm on TNT Sports 1 and Liverpool v Everton at 4pm on Channel 4. Six Nations rugby union shows France v Italy at 2. 20pm from Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille on ITV1. The listings also round up recent Winter Olympics highlights — a biathlete’s confession of infidelity and a giddy highland fling on the ice between Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson — and note that the closing ceremony at the Verona Arena will hand the 2030 baton to the French Alps; that Olympics material in the guide is credited HR.
Classical music: Gulbenkian Orchestra concert in Lisbon
A concert in Lisbon features the Gulbenkian Orchestra conducted by Aziz Shokakimov, with a programme that includes Ravel’s La Valse, Debussy’s La Mer and the symphonic poem Vltava by Bedřich Smetana; that item is listed by Jack Seale in the evening recommendations.
