Anna Chancellor says she did not do any research for her role as Lady Frances Grey in My Lady Jane . The eight-episode series, starring Dominic Cooper and Jim Broadbent among others, is based on Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand and Jodi Meadows’ bestselling YA novels, and re-imagines the life of the Nine Days’ Queen, Lady Jane Grey. Anna plays Lady Frances, the controlling, power-hungry mother of Jane (Emily Bader).
“I knew a little bit about Tudor England,” Anna says over a video call from Crete. “I knew about Henry VIII and Hampton Court. I knew that they beheaded many young women and queens.
” Tudor England, Anna says, had a strange dichotomy. “They were incredibly sophisticated, wore fantastic clothes, there were big traders and had this love of art, and yet were extremely violent.” The script, Anna says with a laugh was not really historically accurate.
“The main thing was to understand the tone the makers wanted.” The 59-year-old actor says it’s “the normal way” when asked about how she got the role. “I got sent the script, auditioned, put my two or three scenes on tape, (now we actors record ourselves) and sent it.
That was that, there was no big drama.” An unpleasant woman Though the show does not err particularly on the side of authenticity, Anna says the historical Lady Frances and the one in My Lady Jane align with Lady Frances even pinching her daughter. “She has been seen in history as an unpleasant woman.
From the diary that Lady Jane Gr.