“You know how unfair and tilted the scales are,” she said. “How much it’s going to be weighed by misogyny and classism,” Boynton says of the woman she portrays. “[Ellis] was very, very familiar with that. It’s the agony that so many of us know – knowing the truth and how it should be, versus how it’s going to be, and how prejudice condemns your existence, your freedom, and your fate.”
“There is no question that she shouldn’t have hanged for that, and people knew that at the time,” she told Forbes. “There was such a mass outrage from the general public who tried to protest this and prevent it from happening. You just feel inherent frustration from seeing the extent of the injustice carried out.”
The show’s screenwriter Kelly Jones has described Ruth as “a flawed, complex, but brave and interesting person who changed our whole legal system”.
It’s going to be quite a series. Here’s everything we know about A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story.
Des Willie/ITV
A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story plot
The plot synopsis for the series reads as follows: “A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story tells the hidden story of Ruth Ellis and exposes the timeless British obsessions of class, sex and death. Set in 1955 in the glamorous and intoxicating world of London club-land, Ruth found huge acclaim, aged 28, as the capital’s youngest club manager.
“But her success soon unraveled as she became entwined in an abusive relationship with racing driver David Blakely. On trial for his murder, Ruth was condemned to hang by a system which judged her for far more than her crime.”
A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story cast
Joining Lucy on the show’s cast will be Toby Jones, Laurie Davidson, Mark Stanley, Joe Armstrong, Arthur Davill, Juliet Stevenson, Toby Stephens, Amanda Drew and Nigel Havers.
