A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story - Episode Guide

Ruth Ellis is arrested standing over her lover's dead body with a gun in her hand. The police believe it to be an open and shut case but Ruth's solicitor, John Bickford, starts to suspect there's more to the tragedy than meets the eye. While he starts to discover the truth, we follow Ruth from the beginning of her passionate affair with David as she journeys into his glamorous upper middle-class world. And as the relationship intensifies, we glimpse David's more controlling and abusive side and a darker romance begins to develop.

At the Old Bailey, the prejudices of the British class and legal systems judge Ruth for far more than her crime. Bickford is concerned that Ruth is withholding vital information which might save her life and outside the courtroom, we come to understand just what Ruth sacrificed for David and how trapped she was within a heavily toxic love triangle. 

Found guilty and condemned to hang in three week's time, Ruth initially accepts her fate but becomes more desperate as her time draws near and her lawyer puts pressure on the Home Office for a reprieve. As Ruth reflects on the past few months, we learn that she had become pregnant with David's child. Having lost everything she worked so hard for, with her relationship becoming more violent, Ruth relies on Desmond to provide for her and her son. And as we watch the crumbling of her past life, the pressures of the imminent future and death take centre stage. Will reprieve be granted? 

The day before Ruth's execution, she finally agrees to tell her new lawyer, Victor Mishcon, the full story, the whole truth. Mishcon has twenty-four hours to save her life. We flashback to the weeks leading up to David's murder and now understand how his death came about. The story comes full circle and we see its tragic, compelling events with fresh eyes.

A deeper look at the turbulent life of the real woman, her love affair with David Blakely, and the infamous crime that led to her being the last woman hanged in Britain.