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Amazon rewrites Lady Jane Grey story as feminist comedy because she 'deserves a different ending'

The Execution of Lady Jane Grey - Art Images via Getty Images
The Execution of Lady Jane Grey - Art Images via Getty Images

The story of Lady Jane Grey is one of the most tragic in royal history: queen for just nine days and executed at the age of 17.

Her death is recorded in a dramatic painting by Paul Delaroche, one of the National Gallery’s most visited works.

However, a new television series will present a drastically different take. My Lady Jane will rewrite the tale as a historical comedy in which the young heroine avoids the executioner’s axe and instead has a life full of romance and adventure.

Amazon is making the series and hopes it will be a hit to rival Netflix’s Emily in Paris.

Emily Bader, an American actress, will portray Lady Jane, with British stars Anna Chancellor, Rob Brydon, Dominic Cooper and Jim Broadbent in supporting roles as aristocrats.

The message of the show, according to the marketing, is that “even doomed heroines can save themselves”.

'I can give her a different ending'

My Lady Jane is based on a young adult fantasy novel and New York Times bestseller by Cynthia Hand, a US author, who said her aim was to “revise history”.

Hand has explained: “I’d always wanted to write a novel about Lady Jane Grey, who was a strong-willed, bookish teenage girl in 16th century England who had the misfortune to become queen, but only for nine days and then she had her head chopped off.

“I always loved studying Jane Grey’s story in history except for the ending. I hated that this awesome person had such a tragic end. So I thought, ‘Hey, I’m a writer. I can give her a different ending. I could even turn her tragedy into a comedy’,” she told Publishers Weekly.

Set for late 2023 release

The series, which is currently filming in the UK and due to air late next year, is part of a trend for rewriting female characters from history - both real and imagined - as feisty heroines for the TikTok generation.

Netflix’s recent remake of Persuasion turned quiet Anne Elliot into a Fleabag-style comedy character, giving knowing looks to camera and swigging wine straight from the bottle, while Dickinson on Apple TV+ reimagined Emily Dickinson as a cool teen playing air guitar.

American actress Emily Bader will portray Lady Jane - Getty Images North America
American actress Emily Bader will portray Lady Jane - Getty Images North America

In reality, Lady Jane, a great-niece of Henry VIII, was proclaimed Queen on July 10 1553 following the death of her teenage cousin, Edward VI. She was swiftly overthrown by Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, and imprisoned at Tower Green.

At her execution on Feb 12 1554, she is said to have groped for the block in a panic after being blindfolded. Her last words were: “Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit”.

Amazon show first to erase real story

Previous depictions of Lady Jane have been noted for their historical inaccuracies, including a 1986 romantic film starring Helena Bonham Carter, and Delaroche’s 19th century portrait which showed the execution taking place indoors rather than on Tower Green.

But the Amazon Prime Video show is the first to erase the real story and replace it with something entirely fictional.

The success of the novel in the US prompted Hand and her co-authors, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows, to launch a series rewriting the stories of famous women, including Mary, Queen of Scots and Mary Shelley.

In My Plain Jane, they imagine that Jane Eyre was a real person and friend of Charlotte Bronte.