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The Lady writer explains new Sarah Ferguson TV drama and how series handles Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor

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The Lady writer explains new Sarah Ferguson TV drama and how series handles Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor

Why The Lady, the new drama telling the story of Sarah Ferguson's former dresser Jane Andrews, is a "toxic fairy-tale".

Filming of a TV series, with a woman in an extravagant green dress, jacket and hat being filmed by a cameraman in a room with a very large fireplace

Left Bank

Gareth McLean

Published: Monday, 16 February 2026 at 5:01 pm

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This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.

“Andrew does not feature,” writer Debbie O’Malley says emphatically of the royal formerly known as Prince and his presence, or lack thereof, in ITV1’s four-parter The Lady. The drama tells the story of Jane Andrews (former dresser to the once Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson), who killed her partner Thomas Cressman in 2000.

O’Malley says The Lady isn’t “interested in the royal world because it’s very much about the female, domestic world of Sarah [Natalie Dormer] and Jane’s part in it. We only ever see the Sarah that Jane got to see.”

The Lady’s attention to Andrews’s relationship with Ferguson — “a fascinating dynamic as close as friends but with a difference in status that will never go away” — forms part of what O’Malley calls Andrews’s “toxic fairy tale”.

“You’ve got this girl who comes from ordinary beginnings and ends up mixing with the greatest in the land at Buckingham Palace – before things take a sad and upsetting turn. It’s an interesting way to explore one woman’s journey as well as British society at the time.”

Two women seen through a car window - one in black jacket and white shirt and one with red hair and bright pink jacket

Jane Andrews and the then-Duchess of York in 1994. ALPHA

Of course, it’s not a fairy tale, though. It’s a true story, or at least based on one. “If you’re writing true crime, there are things you can never know, and we wanted to be transparent about that. So wherever possible we’ve tried to show key moments of Jane and Tommy’s relationship through the eyes of the friends that were around them. There was no way we could necessarily please everyone, but we weren’t setting out to upset anyone.”

O’Malley says she takes the “enormous” responsibility involved seriously. “When you’re trying to understand a complex protagonist, it’s easy to lose sight of the victim. And that was something that was important from the beginning – to remember that a man lost his life and his family and his friends are still grieving that loss. You just have to approach it with integrity.”

The Lady will launch on Sunday (22nd February) at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.

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Authors

A bearded Gareth McLean sits before a dark green backgrounded, looking at the camera and smiling gently

Gareth McLean

Gareth McLean has been writing about television for nearly 30 years. As a critic, he's reviewed thousands of programmes. As a feature writer, he's interviewed hundreds of people, from Liza Minnelli to Jimmy Savile. He has also written for TV.

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