A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story tells the story of the last woman to be hanged in Britain (Image: ITV)
New ITV drama A Cruel Story: The Ruth Ellis Story focuses on the last woman to be hanged in Britain.
The four-part series is set in 1955 in the glamorous world of London club-land, where Ruth found huge acclaim as the capital’s youngest club manager.
Ruth Ellis (Lucy Boynton) entered a relationship with racing driver David Blakely (Laurie Davidson), which later turned abusive, and he was later killed. Ruth was arrested and charged for his murder and was condemned to be hanged.
On July 13, 1955, at exactly one minute past nine, 28-year-old Ruth Ellis was executed by hanging.
The crime drama was filmed across Britain in 2023 and used many historic locations linked to the real-life events in Ruth Ellis’ story.
Where was A Cruel Story: The Ruth Ellis Story filmed?
Filming for the ITV drama about Ruth Ellis took place in Dorchester, Dorset (Image: Michael Taylor/Dorset Live)
A Cruel Story: The Ruth Ellis Story was filmed across London, Kent, Dorset and other areas of the country in latter months of 2023.
Scenes for the series were shot in October 2023 at the Magdala pub in Hampstead, which was closed for three days for filming.
Other London locations include the corridors of the Old Bailey and the former magistrates’ court where Ellis appeared shortly after shooting her lover.
Speaking about standing in the same dock as Ruth Ellis, Lucy Boynton said the atmosphere and surroundings inspired her performance.
She said: “The days I filmed in court were very intense because for legal reasons obviously, and for accuracy, all dialogue is verbatim from the court transcripts.
“So we got a totally vivid experience of what that trial was like. How frustrating it was to sit through the misinformation and misrepresentation of Ruth’s experience.
The Magdala pub in Hampstead where David Blakely was killed was used as a filming spot (Image: Getty)
“Because Blakely was a member of the upper class it was deemed inappropriate to talk about his ugly behaviour, so none of the physical and emotional abuse he inflicted was mentioned, and therefore the case was entirely imbalanced and Ruth misrepresented.”
In October 2023, Dorchester Prison in Dorset was used as a prison setting for the ITV drama. The ‘B Wing Hanging Shed’ was completely closed for filming with one of the cells being labelled ‘Ruth’s cell.’
Filming also took place at the entrance to The Historic Dockyard Chatham in Kent, which doubled for the entrance to Holloway Prison.
A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, is based on Carol Ann Lee’s acclaimed biography A Fine Day for Hanging: The Real Ruth Ellis Story, and adapted by Kelly Jones (The Long Call, Des, Baptiste) and produced by critically acclaimed producers, Silverprint Pictures, whose portfolio includes Shetland, Vera and Flesh and Blood.
Kelly Jones has written all four scripts and Angie Daniell (World On Fire, Vigil, The Long Call) produces the series. Lee Haven Jones (Passenger, Feast, The Long Call) directs all four episodes.
A Cruel Love The Ruth Ellis Story debuts at 9pm on Wednesday, March 5 on ITV1 and ITVX. All episodes will be available on ITVX.