Mia McKenna-Bruce and Natalie Dormer play Jane Andrews and Sarah Ferguson in the four-part drama, The Lady. Photo / ITV
The upcoming television drama about Sarah Ferguson’s former aide, who was convicted of murder, is causing renewed anxiety for the victim’s family.
The ITV four-part series about Jane Andrews, titled The Lady, stars Mia McKenna-Bruce as the convicted murderer and Natalie Dormer, who starred in Game of Thrones, as the former Duchess of York.
Jane Andrews, who was a royal dresser for almost a decade, murdered her boyfriend Thomas Cressman with a cricket bat and knife in their west London flat in 2000. She was released on licence in 2015, before this was revoked in 2018 following claims of harassment.
Rick Cressman, Thomas’ brother, said it was “scary” that the four-part drama would be told as part truth, part fiction.
The hotelier has told the Telegraph of his fear that production company Left Bank, the same firm behind Netflix’s hit historical drama The Crown, would “make things up”.
He said: “[The series] is open to lots of bits of interpretation and it is fictitious. So, if there’s bits that are made up – like in The Crown they had ghosts of Princess Diana appearing in the programme – I find it quite scary, and I know that the detective who investigated everything to do with Tommy’s murder, Jim Dickie, has been anxious and probably still is.”
His comments come after McKenna-Bruce suggested the programme had Thomas’ family’s blessing, telling an interviewer: “The family of Tommy were involved”.
Responding to this, Cressman said: “I think Mia was a little off-track talking of involvement.
“We’ve been there and assisted in trying to make sure that it is actually something that comes over in the right way, because we just don’t know at this stage. I still don’t know how honest and how close to being truthful to the true story that it’s based on [it will be].”
He added: “I wasn’t too pleased with that kind of suggestion, because for 25 years I’ve been protecting my brother’s legacy and memory… this particular four-part series is the 10th TV production that I’ve had to keep coping with.
“I would call it co-operation of duty, [and] anyone who ever suggests it’s in some way done helpfully or willingly is just not thinking straight,” the hotel owner explained.
The show will follow Andrews’ professional rise and dramatic fall, chronicling how the working-class girl from Grimsby landed a job as Ferguson’s aide only to wind up with a life sentence after killing her partner.
Andrews, who was released again from prison in 2019, after police found no evidence of the claims of harassment, worked for Ferguson for nine years until 1997. At the time of Thomas’ murder, she was working in a jewellery shop.
Debbie O’Malley, the writer, has previously said the show would examine “female ambition and human frailty and a devastating chain of events that ended in the taking of a man’s life,” adding that the story is “tied up with our national preoccupation with class, and our ongoing obsession with the Royal family”.
For Cressman, whose sister Cathy died last week, it represents the reopening of a traumatic event.
He said: “I speak to Jim [Dickie] fairly regularly, and I think he’s still anxious that when people have the chance to write a script and make something dramatic for entertainment, there’s this danger that people seem to forget and they talk about it just as being a story.
“For myself and my sister and all the rest of our family, it’s part of our lives. It’s not just a story. And unfortunately … people look and say it’s a story. And I think of my brother on much higher levels than being just a story.”
Basia Briggs, a socialite and former friend of Andrews, has also previously expressed her fear about the new mini-series, saying that a traumatic period in her life “is being resurrected again – it’s horrible”.
She added: “It’s a huge impertinence to depict people who are still living. I’m terrified of them getting things wrong.”
Dormer, playing Ferguson, declined to promote the series after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Ferguson were stripped of their titles following the exposure of their lies about their friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the paedophile billionaire who died in a US prison.
The actor said last September: “When I agreed to take the role in The Lady, I knew portraying the script’s Sarah Ferguson would require nuance. People are layered, their journeys are full of highs and lows, and as an actor, my job is to lean into those elements and bring them to life with honesty and empathy.
“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. For that reason, I will not be taking part in the promotion of the project.”
She has also donated her entire salary from the project to the National Association for People Abused in Childhood and the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse.
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.