{"id":303191,"date":"2026-02-21T17:49:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T17:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/303191\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T17:49:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T17:49:07","slug":"sarah-ferguson-programme-sparks-nerves-as-royal-drama-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/303191\/","title":{"rendered":"Sarah Ferguson programme sparks ‘nerves’ as royal drama looms"},"content":{"rendered":"

ITV has placed lawyers on standby after it was revealed the broadcaster is \u201cnervy\u201d due to the portrayal of Sarah Ferguson, it has been reported<\/p>\n

The Lady is a four-part drama set to begin airing on Sunday, showcasing the story of Jane Andrews, Ms Ferguson\u2019s former personal dresser, who was convicted of murdering her boyfriend in 2000.<\/p>\n

A source close to the show said: \u201cITV is very nervy about The Lady going out on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a flattering portrayal of Fergie at all but they\u2019ve got duty lawyers on standby in case of more spectacular royal revelations.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

ITV are said to have lawyers on standby ahead of the premiere of The Lady on Sunday <\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

ITV<\/p>\n

The brother of the man who was killed by Andrews also spoke out ahead of the show’s release.<\/p>\n

Rick Cressman, a hotelier, expressed alarm that the four-part series The Lady would blend fact with fiction when portraying his brother Thomas’s death.<\/p>\n

“[The series] is open to lots of bits of interpretation and it is fictitious,” he said.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

He pushed back against suggestions the family had given their blessing to the production.<\/p>\n

“I would call it cooperation of duty, [and] anyone who ever suggests it’s in some way done helpfully or willingly is just not thinking straight,” he explained.<\/p>\n

Andrews served as a royal dresser for Ms Ferguson across nearly a decade before leaving the position in 1997.<\/p>\n

Three years later, while employed at a jewellery shop, she killed Thomas Cressman using a cricket bat and knife at their west London home.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The drama focuses on the real-life story of Jane Andrews who was charged with murdering her boyfriend in 2000<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

ITV<\/p>\n

The former aide, who hailed from Grimsby, received a life sentence for the murder.<\/p>\n

She gained release on licence in 2015, though authorities revoked this in 2018 amid harassment allegations.<\/p>\n

Andrews was freed again in 2019 after police found insufficient evidence to support those claims.<\/p>\n

Left Bank, the production company responsible for Netflix’s The Crown, is behind the new series.<\/p>\n

Mia McKenna-Bruce, who plays Andrews, had suggested the victim’s relatives were “involved” in the production, a characterisation Mr Cressman disputed.<\/p>\n

“I think Mia was a little off-track talking of involvement,” Mr Cressman said.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The depiction of Sarah Ferguson is said to not be flattering <\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

ITV <\/p>\n

The drama marks the tenth television production Mr Cressman has endured about his brother’s killing over the past quarter century.<\/p>\n

“For myself and my sister and all the rest of our family, it’s part of our lives. It’s not just a story,” he said.<\/p>\n

“And I think of my brother on much higher levels than being just a story.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ITV has placed lawyers on standby after it was revealed the broadcaster is \u201cnervy\u201d due to the portrayal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46,52388,10938],"class_list":{"0":"post-303191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-royal","13":"tag-sarah-ferguson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}