A new murder mystery is coming to television.
Left Bank Pictures — the producer of “The Crown” — is spearheading a new true crime series on ITV, titled “The Lady.” The series will tell the story of Jane Andrews, the convicted killer and former dresser to the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson.
The four-part drama will offer a “partially fictionalized” account of Andrews’ life and how she went from being a trusted confidant of a royal family member to a convicted murderer in 2001 for the 2000 stabbing of her lover Thomas Cressman.
The upcoming show will be written by Debbie O’Malley and directed by Lee Haven Jones. “The Crown” producer Florence Haddon-Cave has also signed on as an executive producer.
Per the show’s description, “’The Lady’ charts the rise and fall of former royal dresser Jane Andrews, whose rags to riches fairy tale fell apart when she was convicted of murder.”
“Debbie’s compelling and brilliant scripts re-evaluate what we think we know of Jane Andrews and the events that led to the tragic end of Thomas Cressman’s life,” Helen Ziegler, who is overseeing the production of the series on behalf of ITV and ITVX, said in a statement on Wednesday.
ITV has covered Andrews’ story before. In 2020, the network released a documentary about her case called “Fergie’s Killer Dresser: The Jane Andrews Story.”
Andrews garnered the nickname “the fatal attraction killer” after having worked for the Duchess of York for nearly a decade at the time of Cressman’s murder.
Andrews reportedly landed the job at Buckingham Palace after she answered an anonymous advertisement in search of a personal dresser posted in “The Lady” magazine. Six months later, Ferguson hried Andrews at just 21 years old.
Andrews and Ferguson allegedly hit it off right away, with the Duchess even giving Andrews the affectionate nickname “Lady Jane.”
However, during the murder trial, Andrews was portrayed as a relentless social climber who was obsessed with the royal and tried to copy everything about her.
In 1998, Andrews began a romantic affair with Cressman, a former stockbroker. In September 2000, the pair went on vacation together where Cressman reportedly rejected the idea of marrying Andrews. Once home, the former couple argued and Cressman called the cops fearing for his safety. After they went to bed, Andrews hit Cressman with a cricket bat and stabbed him to death with a kitchen knife.
During her murder trial, Andrews was also diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. She was sentenced to life in prison; however, she was released in June 2015, sent back in 2018 for a separate alleged incident and re-released in August 2019.
