Actress Natalie Dormer announced that she’s not doing any promotional work for the forthcoming ITV drama The Lady in which she plays The Duchess of York and she’s handing her fee over to charity – because she is so appalled by Fergie’s links to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
But I can reveal that there’s no question of the project being shelved by the network.
A source explains that Dormer isn’t the lead – that’s Mia McKenna Bruce who plays Jane Andrews, Fergie’s one time dresser who was jailed for murdering her boyfriend Thomas Cressman.
The drama was filmed this spring by Left Bank Pictures, who made The Crown, and will go out next year on ITV as planned.
The makers are in touch with the family of Cressman, who were initially critical of the idea.
I’m told: ‘Nobody can really understand why Natalie Dormer decided to do this as everyone knew about Fergie and her links to Epstein already.
‘The situation was plain when she took the role – you’d only have to spend 30 seconds on Google. But there you go.’
Dormer, 43, made the announcement after a gushing email from Fergie to Epstein came to light in which she called him her ‘supreme friend’ and seemed to apologise for publicly repudiating him a few weeks earlier.
Natalie Dormer as Sarah Ferguson in the new ITV drama ‘The Lady’. The drama was filmed this spring by Left Bank Pictures, who made The Crown , and will go out next year on ITV as planned despite Dormer announcing she will won’t do any promo
Dormer has said she she will donate her salary for the drama to charity because she is so appalled by the Duchess of York’s links to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein
The Game of Thrones actress said in a statement: ‘Since completing the project, new information has come to light that makes it impossible for me to reconcile my values with Sarah Ferguson’s behaviour, which I believe is inexcusable. For that reason, I will not be taking part in the promotion of the project.
‘In keeping with my commitment to the wellbeing of children I have donated my entire salary from this project to the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) and the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse’.
Former stockbroker Thomas Cressman was beaten with a cricket bat by Jane Andrews as he slept before she stabbed him in the chest in 2000.
The couple are understood to have argued over his unwillingness to marry her.
At her trial, Andrews repeatedly lied in court, saying that he had been violent towards her.
Jim Dickie, who ran the police investigation, said: ‘She murdered him in real life, and then attempted to murder him in death by trying to ruin his reputation’. She was sentenced to life imprisonment and released in 2015.
In 2018, she was recalled to prison after being accused of harassing a former boyfriend, and she was re released the following year.
Rick Cressman, Thomas’ brother, was initially critical of the drama.
Dormer said in a statement: ‘Since completing the project, new information has come to light that makes it impossible for me to reconcile my values with Sarah Ferguson’s behaviour, which I believe is inexcusable’
Mia McKenna Bruce (pictured) plays lead Jane Andrews, Fergie’s one time dresser who was jailed for murdering her boyfriend Thomas Cressman
He said last year: ‘It feels that Tommy can never rest in peace.
‘It’s a very cruel thing that ITV have commissioned a drama about it,’ he said. ‘It gives [the film-makers] licence to say or do anything they like – true or not. It’s an abuse of my family.’
Hotelier Mr Cressman claims that the four-part dramatisation, entitled The Lady, is an ‘out-and-out attempt to profiteer’ from the death of his brother, who was murdered by Andrews at their home in Fulham, west London.
Left Bank producer Sian McWilliams said: ‘The Lady deftly explores the tragic series of events and poses the question – who is the real Jane Andrews?’
Director Lee Haven Jones adds: ‘The series won’t be an apology for her actions. Jane Andrews killed somebody – it’s that simple. We will present the story of a very complex woman and do something which I think drama does very well and that is to humanise the people involved and attempt to provide an insight into how they operated, Jane included. But it will be fair towards her rather than sympathetic.’
