ONE of the leading stars of HBO’s Game of Thrones will take on another royal role in a new ITV drama.
Natalie Dormer will play the real-life Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson in the four-part drama The Lady about a former royal aide turned murderer.
The drama will tell the story of former royal dresser Jane Andrews, whose rags to riches fairy tale fell to shreds when she was convicted of murder.
Bafta-winner, Mia McKenna-Bruce (How To Have Sex), will portray Jane alongside Dormer and Ed Speleers (Outlander, Downton Abbey) who will play Thomas Cressman.
Jane started her life as a working-class girl, until she a magazine advertisement which amazingly led her to become the Duchess of York’s dresser at Buckingham Palace.
Thanks to her brush with the Royal Family, Jane was able to firm her spot in the upper-classes, until she suddenly lost her job with the Duchess after nine years.
As she comes to terms with her fall from the upper echelons of society, meets charismatic businessman Thomas Cressman and falls deeply in love.
But the romance is not all it’s cracked up to be and Jane’s hopes for the relationship lead to disastrous consequences.
Award-winning director, Lee Haven Jones (The Feast, A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, Passenger) will direct the series.
Dormer, 43, is best known for work as Margaery Tyrell in Game of Thrones and Anne Boleyn in The Tudors.
Jane worked for Fergie for nine years until 1997.
A few years later, she stabbed her lover, Thomas Cressman, to death with a kitchen knife at their west London home and was jailed for life in 2001.
The ITV drama about her life is set to be partially fictionalised and is penned by Harlots‘ Debbie O’Malley.
“When Jane Andrews was tried for the murder of Thomas Cressman in 2001 it made headlines around the world,” Debbie said in a statement.
“But behind those headlines, lay a much more complex, painful and thought-provoking story – an exploration of female ambition and human frailty and a devastating chain of events that ended in the taking of a man’s life.
“And this story, tied up with our national preoccupation with class and our ongoing obsession with the Royal family, feels every bit as relevant now as it did twenty years ago.”
