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He is not a spoiler to reveal that Ruth Ellis (Lucy Boynton), the main character in the new four episode crime show Cruel loveHe died by hanging on July 13, 1955. Ruth was a real woman who committed a very real crime: her boyfriend, David Blakely shot (Laurie Davidson), on the Easter year of her death. But what led the nightclub receptionist to commit such a horrific action?
That’s the question behind Cruel loveBritbox’s outstanding true crime explores Ruth’s motives behind the murder of David, the subsequent case that dominated the tabloid press and her death by execution, which is the last time a woman was put to death for her crimes in the United Kingdom.
This story was previously told, most especially in the 1985 movie Dancing with a strangerbut never as absorbed and precise as it is here. Like Ellis, Boynton is never better playing a woman after without many options in life. The show invokes a period convincingly when a scandal could ruin a reputation and a passion crime could charm a peace that is still.
