THE LADY. sun&mon 9pm itv - TV PACE. NO SPOILERS

[Blondeshavemorefun]

ITV The Lady release date, cast and what to expect from Sarah Ferguson drama

The Lady is a four-part limited series delving into the rise and fall of the former Duchess of York’s royal aide.

On sun and mon for 2weeks at 9pm

Sarah Ferguson (https://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/sarah-ferguson)’s former dresser Jane Andrews worked for the royal for nine years.

Three years after she was let go, she murdered her boyfriend Thomas Cressman.

At the heart of ITV’s The Lady is Jane Andrews, the working-class woman from Grimsby who got a chance of a lifetime when she was hired to work as Sarah Ferguson’s royal dresser before her life spiralled out of control.

She is brought to life by actress Mia McKenna-Bruce who has starred in How To Have Sex, The Fence, Get Even and Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials on Netflix.

McKenna-Bruce is joined by actor Ed Speleers - famed for his roles as Stephen Bonnet in Outlander, Jimmy Kent in Downton Abbey and Rhys Montrose in You on Netflix - who plays Jane’s boyfriend and victim Thomas Cressman.

Meanwhile, Sarah Ferguson is portrayed by actress Natalie Dormer, remembered for playing Margaery Tyrell in HBO’s Game of Thrones (https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/aemon-targaryen-knight-seven-kingdoms-36703680) and Anne Boleyn in The Tudors on Channel 4 (https://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/channel-4).

What to expect from The Lady on ITV
Described as a “working-class girl from Grimsby”, Jane Andrews’ life changed forever when she answered an advertisement in the magazine The Lady.

However, no one expected that following her time working for the royals that Jane would go on to murder her boyfriend Thomas Cressman, hitting him with a cricket (https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/cricket/) bat before stabbing him in the chest.

Is it finished now? Would like to discuss my shock at the massive secret she divulged in court when on the stand!

Yes

Yes I would like to know if what she said happened to her as a child was true, it certainly might go an long way to explaining her “issues”, but I guess we will never really know that.

I mean with a lot of sexual abuse there's no actual 'proof' is there

I agree. Natalie Dormer was miscast. Not a good fit at all to the point where she was quite distractingly un-Fergie like.

Yes. What she said about being sexually abused when she was aged 8, but it wasn't her parents! Apparently, it was her older brother - probably the one who we see bothering her at the start of episode 1 and she pokes him with a pencil whilst she's watching Charles and Di get married.

I've seen in news articles (as read around the case when this series came out) that she escaped prison as some point.

When she escaped, she met up with her parents and her brother at a Premier Inn. He denied it on court, her appeal was rejected, I wouldn't have thought she'd want to meet up with him on her escape.

Who was the bloke she was writing to?

That bit was meant to hint that she was starting a new relationship, in a ‘look out men! The loony homicidal woman is coming for you!’ kind of a way.

Totally agree Fergie was always depicted as a bumbling buffoon compared to the majestic elegant Diana. I do think the actress playing Jane is brilliant tho

I thought he was a prisoner elsewhere?

Maybe we were seeing her from Jane’s point of view?

The curly blonde woman seemed to be putting on an accent more than Jane I thought. Some very good actors though overall.

If she’s based on Basia Briggs as I think she’s meant to be that’s about right.
She contributed heavily to a documentary about this case in 2006 and I remember her having a very distinct and intriguing manner- if anything the actress didn’t go far enough (probably because viewers wouldn’t have believed in her).

Oh that’s interesting. I found this article about her https://www.dailymail.co.uk/lifestyle/article-5141963/Basia-Briggs-jaw-droppingly-frank-memoirs.html. Her mother comes across as a lunatic! They could make a drama of this.

Yes, I too read that she had escaped from prison the first time around but had been caught again later on!

I also thought she was writing to another prisoner. Talk about forever optimistic. You've got to admire the woman's tenacity to never give up and keep aiming high 😉

But I didn't know she had met up with her abuser (brother) again 😳

Thanks for sharing this.

Basia's mother certainly was a sex craved lunatic! So many affairs and even had an affair with Basia's husband. Her mother also admitted to trying to kill her first husband so this might explain why Basia was so understanding about Jane (up until the point she realised that Jane had lied to her).

Wow.
That makes sense of why she connected with Jane Andrews. Clearly she had seen more of life than your average socialite and understood what it was like not to fit in.
She did seem like a very intriguing person in the previous documentary.

Should have said she was sex-crazed not sex craved!

She reportedly went up to 15st while pregnant and struggled to lose weight afterwards, but eventually did so by following WeightWatchers, hence she was an ambassador for them for a long period. Her weight gain was nothing remarkable, no more than happens to many women around pregnancy but, as with any female celebrity's weight, the press made a song and dance of it.

I was born in the 80s so only had a vague memory of this, so it was interesting to hear the whole story. Never sure whether “enjoyed” is the right word when watching about real life murders but it was good.

I didn’t remember this story at all!

She has two brothers in that early scene so perhaps met up with the non abusive one

what a tale. Good actors. Bleak all round

Do we beleive her about her being abused ?

tho horrible to doubt someone