A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story

Watched> Wednesday, 26th March, 2025 @ Edge Water Studios. Rated 4.5 * * * * Very Good to Excellent - 8/10 < Cert. Would be a 15 > Four Part Mini Series by ITV. Great acting performance from Lucy Boynton, as Ruth Ellis, followed by very good performances from Toby Jones, as John Bickford, Mark Stanley, as Desmond Cussen and Laurie Davidson, as David Blakely. This is a Notoriously TRUE STORY, that changed British history, because of Ruth Ellis (age 28) who was the last woman in Britain to be sentenced to death, by hanging, on Wednesday, 13th July, 1955 at 9 am. She was WRONGLY CONVICTED, as evidence was with held, which meant she could have received a life sentence, instead of The DEATH Penalty. Badly handled by the authorities at the time, SHAME ON THEM!! This 4-part film can be dark and solemn, with upsetting scenes. Their are lighter moments at times, but mainly this is such a tragic story of a young lady who wanted to live her life to the full, right or wrongly. (ps)

Famed for being the last woman in Britain to be hanged, Ruth Ellis shot and killed her lover David Blakely after a turbulent and troublesome affair. Ellis was hanged by Albert Pierrepoint.

ITV have done some cracking dramas based on real life events, just think of Des and The Pembroke Murders to name just a few, whilst I'd say this was good, it doesn't perhaps quite match up to those.

It's a little slow to start, but it does get better, the final two episodes were better than the first two.

It's interesting to hear some of the legalities of the case, Ruth's admission and refusal to accept legal advice are intriguing.

Visually it's terrific, the sets and costumes are spot on, I thought the music was rather good, my only issue I guess, the script seemed a little flat at times, it just lacked a bit of sparkle.

Lucy Boynton and Mark Stanley were rather good, I thought Toby Jones was excellent throughout, a role not too dissimilar to the one he played in Witness for the Prosecution from a few years back.

Pretty good, but may I make a suggestion, check out Dance with a Stranger, it's worth hunting down, it starred Miranda Richardson and Rupert Everett.

7/10.

As with the film Let Him Have It, Iit's hard to do a real life story but, at least 70 years on, there are few people around to state how lose to the truth the characters and the facts are.

There is a top cast here but most of them do seem to be playing themselves. Lucy Boynton is just like the posh girl she played in Why Didn't They Ask Evans, Joe Armstrong does a poor job trying not to remind us of his dad in New Tricks, Toby Jones is Mr Bates, that metal detector guy and all his other roles rolled into one while Mark Stanley puts on a moustache and glasses trying to hope we don't remember him from Happy Valley while Julie Stevenson tries not to play the psychologist from Professor T.

Admittedly, Nigel Havers does a good job playing his grandad assuming his grandad was just like Nigel Havers.

All this window dressing, including great deal on 1950s cars and styles, doesn't hide the fact that in all modern dramas, men are portrayed as weak or evil even in true crime dramas set 70 years ago.

The swipe at the establishment of the day is understandable. Ellis is shown to be a common girl doing well for herself in business but she has no power of the establishment and the old school tie.

A fair watch but you don't put your best shows on tv in the spring. A modern feminist attack on an old story.

I have always liked Lucy Boynton & to be fair she is perhaps a little too pretty to play Ruth Ellis, who was not very attractive. However, with the superb make up & her terrific acting skills she pulls off the role effortlessly. There have been a fair few biopics on Ruth Ellis as her story is a fascinating one. My favourite so far is Miranda Richardson in Dance with a Stranger, but Miss Boyntons portrayal is very close to being just as great. She shows her dedication to her craft which is admirable. For instance she is a non smoker, yet here & in other roles she is shown smoking (although not properly) which fits the character. Other things I enjoyed about this production was the 1950's sets which are superbly done, yet occasionally it is let down by slow screen play & a rather bland script, making parts of this difficult to watch. Also as normal with productions today there is a fair bit of emphasis on the theme of feminism which is not really a problem, only for the fact Ruth Ellis was not a feminist. She admitted her guilt & was certainly not a victim. This does come across in the excellent court room scenes, which I also enjoyed.

All in all this is a good drama, with excellent acting from Lucy Boynton, but I am only giving this a 6 as I feel it was let down by a weak script & occasionally dragging screen play. As well as glaring gaps in the Ellis story in which her son is almost invisible. This was a missed opportunity to show Ellis as a mother which would have perhaps garnered more sympathy for her character. So to enjoy this you should also have an appreciation & understanding of the real Ruth Ellis story. Ruth made her mark on history with a violent crime of passion which resulted in her execution as the very last women to be hanged in Britain.

Ruth Ellis This is story that is both fascinating and heart breaking that I was looking forward to. There is place for a discussion about the need for the ultimate justice to be delivered whilst also not shying away from its mistakes. Or as in the case whether like France there should be a place for a "crime of passion" is crime passionnel. It refers to a violent crime, such as murder, that is committed due to a strong impulse, like anger or jealousy.

But this film sadly is not it. First of all this is just too serious a topic for us to be distracted by "the message", its imposition here is inappropriate. My first impression however is to be frustrated by the poor set design and dialogue. What was the weird railway like carriage that was I think meant to be a café? If anyone wants to know they looked like then watch "Vera Drake" or "The Krays" or "Look Back in Anger". The sets are just jarringly inauthentic.

When she calls someone "pompous" I laughed out loud. Who wrote the dialogue I wondered. Then I saw Kelly Jones wrote the dialogue and she is posh from Oxford. Fair enough. But what about those accents? They sound like Dick Van Dyke, the casting is wrong.

Lastly ALL the men are bad. Horrible, nasty. Come on now this trope is just such a bore.