Jane Andrews drama prompts tears as jane andrews story is retold
More than 25 years after the killing, a new four-part drama about jane andrews has prompted tears from the victim’s brother and renewed commentary from a women’s legal campaigner. The series, its casting and the family’s response are drawing attention to the 2000 murder and its aftermath.
Family reaction and private screening
Rick Cressman, a business owner from Warwickshire and the brother of Tom Cressman, said the new drama brought him to tears by the final episode. He said he was "feeling very, very tearful" and that protecting his brother’s memory and legacy had become more important over the past 25 years. He told a broadcaster he had been concerned when the drama was commissioned and that the producers gave him a private screening.
Cressman said he has cooperated with the media over the years from a sense of duty to his brother, and he repeated that he could not have his brother’s memory and legacy "besmirched by people just creating stuff. " He described the situation as "a changing scenario over 25 years" and recalled the announcement in December of 2024 that a four-part fictionalised drama was to be made. He added that, once the current series concludes, another production already under way will bring the total to 12 television productions about the case.
The Lady: casting and premise
The four-part series The Lady premiered on a recent Sunday night and follows the life of Jane Andrews. The drama stars Natalie Dormer as Sarah Ferguson and Mia McKenna-Bruce as Andrews. Promoted as being from the makers of The Crown, the programme is described as a "gripping true crime drama" about Andrews, "whose rise and fall culminated in a brutal murder. " The series begins with a working-class Jane trying to fit in with a new royal world while managing worsening mental health.
The killing and conviction details
Businessman Tom Cressman was murdered in London in 2000. While he slept at the couple’s London home, he was attacked with a cricket bat and fatally stabbed by his partner, Jane Andrews. Andrews, originally from Cleethorpes in north-east Lincolnshire, had been employed by Sarah Ferguson for nine years and later took part in efforts by police to locate her after the killing. The then-34-year-old denied murdering Tom Cressman on the basis that he would not marry her, but she was convicted of the businessman's murder and in 2001 was ordered to serve at least 15 years in prison.
Legal comment and campaign response
Harriet Wistrich, chief executive of the Centre for Women's Justice, who represented Jane Andrews at an appeal in 2003, commented on the new drama and the wider media attention. She noted that Jane Andrews was convicted of the murder of Tom Cressman more than 25 years ago, and that Andrews has long since served her prison sentence and sought to move on. Wistrich said Andrews has not contributed to The Lady or to previous television documentaries about her case, and that the public is therefore presented with a one-sided view that fails to explore why a vulnerable woman in her circumstances may have been driven to kill.
Wistrich said prosecution cases and media coverage can distort underlying stories by relying on sexist tropes such as "fatal attraction killer" and "gold hunter. " She pointed to an underlying and sometimes hidden history of abuse and control in comparable cases, citing the case of Sally Challen as one example. Wistrich added that the legal precedent created in Sally Challen’s case and greater understanding of coercive control and mental-health vulnerabilities could assist Jane Andrews in a fresh appeal should she wish to explore one. The organisation has prepared a more in-depth press briefing providing context and background to the case. Copyright © 2016 - CENTRE FOR WOMEN'S JUSTICE a Charitable Incorporated Organisation: Charity No. 1169213.
Related programming and cultural notes
Coverage of The Lady has appeared alongside a wider schedule of television and cultural programming. The four-parter sits amid listings that highlight award-season coverage in which One Battle After Another, Sinners, Marty Supreme and Hamnet are the most nominated films of the night; British films mentioned include I Swear, The Ballad of Wallis Island and Pillion. The awards night is hosted by Alan Cumming and features a performance by KPop Demon Hunters.
Other television items in the same listings draw attention to sport and classical music: a biathlete’s on-air confession of infidelity and an ice-skating pairing featuring Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson were noted in Winter Olympics coverage, and the closing ceremony at the Verona Arena was billed as handing the 2030 baton to the French Alps. A concert staged in Lisbon features the Gulbenkian Orchestra conducted by Aziz Shokakimov, performing Ravel’s La Valse, Debussy’s La Mer and the symphonic poem Vltava by Bedřich Smetana.
Features in the schedule include a drama excerpt in which a character confides in another and a storm arrives with the line "someone is about to be martyred, " and a quiz sequence overseen by Alan Carr and Susie Dent that reduces 12 contestants to a final four through a complex mathematical maze and a memory game tied to the periodic table; an ambulance technician named Ollie is mentioned for an exceptional childhood memory of number plates. There is also a late showing of Breathless at 12. 35am, referencing the 1960 Jean-Luc Godard classic (often known as A Bout de Souffle) starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg and discussed in relation to Richard Linklater’s own film about the making of Breathless.
Also listed are a Premier League fixture between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool at 1pm and Tottenham v Arsenal at 4. 25pm; a Women’s FA Cup fifth-round match between Chelsea and Man Utd at 1pm and Liverpool v Everton at 4pm; and a Six Nations match, France v Italy, at 2. 20pm from Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille.
Closing note: family members, campaigners and the drama’s cast and premise are now central to public discussion about the 2000 killing of Tom Cressman and the story of Jane Andrews.
