Prime Video’s new epic fantasy history comedy adventure (got all that?) My Lady Jane spends a lot of time considering the lineage of various characters and their respective claims to the English throne. Stacking the casting deck with the likes of Rob Brydon and Anna Chancellor is a rather meta way of echoing the importance of pedigree.
We had the pleasure and privilege of sitting down virtually with Rob Brydon and Anna Chancellor through the magic of Zoom. They shared how Brydon’s Lord Dudley and Chancellor’s Lady Frances Grey navigate the politically fraught world of Tudor England.
The following transcript has been edited for clarity.
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Wanting the Best for Their Children
Diana Keng: Can you speak to your characters’ motivations for your children?
Rob Brydon: Okay, well, you see, Dudley knows that his son has a rather dark secret, and he’s worried about that. Nobody really knows about it. He also doesn’t have as much money as you might think by appearances. So he’s got to sort his son out. He’s got to do something. That’s a very strong impetus. He hooks up with Lady Frances because he sees Lady Jane and thinks, “Well, hm, she’s directly related to royalty. If I could get him in with her…” It’s like a giant chessboard, isn’t it? They’re moving themselves around as the pieces.
Anna Chancellor: Frances is a single mother. She hasn’t got a man to support her. She has to do this all on her own, and because Henry VIII, who was her uncle, has already beheaded and killed a lot of people, it’s a dangerous environment. You have to know how to play the game. So, she knows her daughters are her future. It’s a very entangled relationship where they have to do what she says. But of course, they don’t.
DK: Both Dudley and Frances are savants at the Game of Court. But none of their kids – except maybe Margaret – are any good at it.
AC: Or interested. They’re not interested, are they? But in a way, that’s very realistic about families, isn’t it? Parents can set up; they can work very hard. They can say, “This is how Life has to be.” And the children are like, “No, thanks.” In a way, that might make it quite a relatable show at some level.
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RB: Yeah, I think that’s true, and the exasperation of the parents in seeing their children… “If you’d just look… I’ve LIVED. I’ve learned some things. PLEASE just listen and do it like this.”
AC: But then the world is changing around them, isn’t it? Things suddenly explode or fail, and there’s an invasion. The whole world is moving so they have to think on their feet which I think is funny as well. You’ve got to suddenly change tack.
RB: Then, you see them go on this journey, this character arc. So, we both end up in a very different place by the end of Episode 8 than from the beginning of Episode 1.
DK: How did it feel immersing yourself in the costumes and set of the show?
AC: Well, we had this unbelievable set designer. What he did rather brilliantly was build the court – just inside a studio – but he built us lots of corridors. That was actually really useful because we’d be walking down corridors, talking to each other, turning into rooms… It felt like you were really somewhere. It was all totally fake. And the plasterwork was so brilliant and original, it kept coming off on your clothes like a real ancient wall would’ve done.
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RB: Yeah, very immersive. But the shoes didn’t have much support in them. That would be my only complaint.
All eight episodes of My Lady Jane drop on Prime Video on June 27.
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