Jane Andrews drama prompts tears from victim’s brother as The Lady premieres
The new ITV drama about jane andrews, The Lady, has left the brother of the murdered man moved to tears and renewed debate over fictionalising a high-profile killing. The four-part series and surrounding coverage matter now because the family says repeated dramatizations over more than two decades are reshaping how Tom Cressman’s death is remembered.
Rick Cressman’s reaction to the ITV screening
Rick Cressman, whose brother Tom was killed in 2000, said he felt “very, very tearful” by the time he reached the final episode after being offered a private screening by ITV. A business owner from Warwickshire, he said he had long cooperated with the media out of duty to his brother but that protecting Tom’s memory had grown increasingly important. "I can't have my brother's memory and legacy being besmirched by people just creating stuff, " he said when describing his concerns about the decision to commission a fictionalised four-part drama.
Jane Andrews portrayal by Mia McKenna-Bruce
The Lady casts Mia McKenna-Bruce in the role of Jane Andrews, an interpretation praised in reviews for its strength. The drama opens with a working-class Jane trying to fit into a new royal world while managing worsening mental health, and critics have singled out McKenna-Bruce as an excellent rising star in that role. Natalie Dormer plays Sarah Ferguson in a performance described as accomplished.
The Lady, its makers and the series format
The Lady is a four-part ITV series that premiered on Sunday night and is described by ITV as a "gripping true crime drama" from the makers of The Crown. The series follows the life of Andrews, tracing a rise and fall that the programme frames as culminating in a brutal murder. The production is part of a long list of dramatizations: Rick Cressman said another production by ABC News and Disney Plus is in the works and that it would be the 12th TV production dealing with the case.
Tom Cressman murder, conviction and legal details
Tom Cressman, a businessman, was attacked with a cricket bat and fatally stabbed while he slept at the London home he shared with his partner, Jane Andrews, in 2000. Andrews denied murdering Tom because he would not marry her but was convicted of his murder and in 2001 was ordered to serve at least 15 years in prison. The context identifies Andrews as having been about 34 at the time of the conviction.
Connections to Sarah Ferguson and Cleethorpes
Andrews is presented in the drama as the former Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson's personal dresser; she was employed by Ferguson for nine years. The context also states that Andrews is from Cleethorpes, in north-east Lincolnshire, and includes a detail that "she" was later involved in police efforts to track Andrews down—who the pronoun "she" refers to is unclear in the provided context.
Wider television context and evening highlights
The Lady appears amid a crowded television schedule and awards season coverage. One Battle After Another, Sinners, Marty Supreme and Hamnet are listed as the most nominated films of the night at a major film awards ceremony, with British films I Swear, The Ballad of Wallis Island and Pillion also in contention; coverage of the night is hosted by Alan Cumming and will include a performance by KPop Demon Hunters. Elsewhere in broadcasting, highlights include Premier League football fixtures Nottingham Forest v Liverpool at 1pm and Tottenham v Arsenal at 4. 25pm, a Women’s FA Cup tie Chelsea v Man Utd at 1pm and Liverpool v Everton at 4pm, and Six Nations rugby France v Italy at 2. 20pm from Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille.
Classical and late-night programming also feature: the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, conducted by Aziz Shokakimov, is set to play Ravel’s La Valse, Debussy’s La Mer and the symphonic poem Vltava by Bedřich Smetana. For late-night viewers, the 1960 film Breathless is scheduled at 12. 35am on Talking Pictures TV, evoking Jean-Luc Godard’s Nouvelle Vague style.
What makes this notable is the confluence of factors—the timing of a December 2024 commissioning announcement, the series’ premiere, and the family’s long history of engagement with media portrayals—that has left a close relative both emotionally affected and publicly protective of a brother’s legacy.
Rick Cressman said the decision to fictionalise a real, living story had been a problem for his family and that facing the December announcement that a four-part fictionalised drama was planned was "very difficult. " The Lady’s premiere now raises questions about how dramatizations balance dramatic storytelling with the sensitivities of surviving relatives and the accumulation of productions revisiting the same case.
