Historical fiction, fantasy storytelling and alternate history come together in My Lady Jane. The eight-part series, streaming on Prime Video from today, focuses on historical heroine Lady Jane Grey — also known as the ‘Nine Days’ Queen’, who claimed the throne of England and Ireland from 10 to 19 July, 1553, was overthrown and subsequently executed — and reimagines an adventurous life for her in which she ascends the throne and lives on to fight a host of adversaries. Emily Bader plays Lady Jane Grey with the supporting cast comprising Dominic Cooper, Anna Chancellor, Jordan Peters and Rob Brydon, among others.

Recently, t2 got on a video call to chat with creator Gemma Burgess (Brooklyn Girls trilogy) and her co-showrunner/executive producer Meredith Glynn (The Boys) about the series (which is described as ‘an epic tale of true love and high adventure set in an alt-universe of action, history, fantasy, comedy, romance, and rompy-pompy’), its irreverent humour and how audacious women are having a moment on screen.

Even as it reimagines history, I liked the fun and irreverent tone of My Lady Jane. What made you want to make this series?

Gemma Burgess: I was on the subway in New York City about six years ago and I saw a girl reading the book (the My Lady Jane series of books written by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows) holding it right up to her nose, she was so engrossed in it! I bought and read the book and fell in love with it and I knew exactly how I would write this is as a television show. I sold it to Amazon (Prime Video) and I wrote a couple of episodes and I was like: ‘Oh my God!’ And then Meredith and I worked together to write the rest of it and make the show.

Meredith Glynn: And it has been amazing ever since! I read Gemma’s pilot (episode) and absolutely fell in love with the tone. Then, I read the book and was hugely inspired.

Ever since we were teenagers, Gemma and I were both obsessed with Lady Jane Grey as a historical figure. She is this avatar of doomed womanhood and a sort of helpless, sexy victim. There is a very famous painting by Delaroche (of the execution of Lady Jane Grey). There is a wonderful movie (called Lady Jane Grey, 1986) with Helena Bonham-Carter and Cary Elwes. All these things sort of seeped into our consciousness.

Gemma, did you always envision it as a TV series as opposed to a film?

Gemma: Yes. We love all the relationships in this story and doing it on television gave us the opportunity to explore these characters at depth and watch them grow.

It was exciting. The story has an extraordinary protagonist at the heart of it. Lady Jane Grey has always been our north star while doing this project and we wanted to bring this incredible world of romance and blend it with fantasy.

What would you count as the biggest challenge of putting this mammoth project together?

Meredith: The biggest challenge was the English weather, definitely! We shot for four days at Dover Castle to recreate the Tower of London and those four days were actually in the night in the middle of November. It was so windy that we had to shut down production after a couple of days and then we recreated Dover Castle as the Tower of London at Pinewood (Studio) and finished the shoot there. But we did shoot a lot outside. We had an entire month of night shoots and that was pretty cold and wet. But it was fun! We went to so many fantastic castles, the locations were amazing.

Showrunners Gemma Burgess (left) and Meredith Glynn Sourced by The Telegraph

And what was the best part?

Gemma: Seeing Emily Bader (who plays Jane Grey) in costume. She was the exact embodiment of the character that had been in my brain and heart for so long.

What were your learnings from adapting this series from a book?

Gemma: We came to the book as fans. It has such an inspiring tone and voice. It was really important for us to keep that in the TV series as well.

My Lady Jane is a blend of many genres — history, romance, fantasy, coming of age — told with a huge dose of irreverence. How did you achieve that and was there the danger of going overboard sometimes?

Gemma: Everything we do has to pass through our creative funnel. If something makes sense to us and makes us laugh or we think it is funny, original or entertaining as well as romantic or exciting, then we go with it.
Meredith: But we were also pretty strict. We threw out a lot of jokes as well as anything else that doesn’t sing to us. We are really hard on ourselves. We are sharp-tongued but also warm-hearted (smiles).
Gemma: In writing My Lady Jane, we were also inspired by a lot of movies, typically those of the ’80s and ’90s, like The Princess Bride, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Blackadder, A Knight’s Tale, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Back to the Future, Clueless....

Were the two of you always on the same page as far as the tone and treatment of My Lady Jane was concerned?

Gemma: We like having spirited discussions! (Laughs) We are mostly on the same page but if we have an argument about something then we tend to go with whoever feels more passionately about their point of view. That is pretty much how we do it.
Meredith: Absolutely! For My Lady Jane, we were mostly in sync and that is because of our shared love for the character. Both of us have the same kind of sense of humour. She (looks at Gemma) is the funniest person I have met!
Gemma: No, you are the funniest! (Both laugh)

Gemma, you said that when Emily Bader wore the costume, she became exactly the Lady Jane Grey you had mind. What made her the best candidate to embody such an important character?

Gemma: Emily has intense sensitivity. You can see every emotion and every thought in her eyes. She is extraordinary as the character.
Meredith: Lady Jane Grey, especially at the beginning of our show, thinks that she is the smartest person in every room. You actually end up loving her for that ambition. Emily had that pat down. She is somebody you want to be friends with, someone you want to know more about. She has the charisma that great actors have.

Literature is sprinkled with memorable instances of the audacious historical heroine. What do you think makes this character type and this sub-genre, in a way, so popular and still relevant?

Meredith: I am so glad that the audacious female heroine is having a moment and I wish that she is able to have more such moments across cinema and televisual history.

It really wasn’t a conversation for us on set, but we organically ended up having a group of female executive producers, we had a female director for the majority of our episodes, and so the female gaze was just imbued in the show in every single way. Audacious female heroine is a no-brainer for us... it is our brand.

There is a moment in My Lady Jane when Lady Jane Grey says: ‘I want my life to be mine forever’. It is a loaded statement. Do you think it applies to most women now as much as it did centuries ago?

Gemma: A lot of women see themselves in a ‘relationship service’ role... so you are a mother, sister, wife... just as an extension of their families. They can be whatever they want to be but everyone has to understand that women are people first.

Is there a character from history or a personality from today that you would like to reimagine on screen?

Meredith: That is a good question. There are so many women who need to be reimagined and rehabilitated and given a happy ending. My pick would be Britney Spears.
Gemma: I think Monica Lewinsky would be a good candidate.