DEADLY romance

Lucy Boynton heads up a star-studded drama about the notorious Ruth Ellis murder case

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NEW DRAMA A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story Wednesday, 9pm, ITV1 (box set, ITVX)

The execution of Ruth Ellis in 1955 for the murder of her abusive lover David Blakely shocked the nation and became one of the most notorious cases in our judicial history.

Now, almost 70 years on, ITV1's four-part drama A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story takes a fresh look at the controversial case in which Ellis, played by Lucy Boynton, became the last woman to be hanged in Britain.

'Ruth was 28 and David was 25 and there was an emotive response from people to the case,' says Boynton, 31, whose credits include The Ipcress File and Bohemian Rhapsody.

'Some people felt she should be hanged because they worried other women would want to stand up for themselves. But the appetite for capital punishment had diminished, so others knew this was barbaric.

Based on Carol Ann Lee's factual book A Fine Day for a Hanging: The Real Ruth Ellis Story, the series begins when ambitious Ellis is trying to overcome her difficult upbringing and past relationships as she takes over the running of Knightsbridge's Little Club and becomes the youngest nightclub manager in London. She soon attracts the attention of besotted ex-RAF pilot Desmond Cussen (Mark Stanley) and upper-crust racing driver David Blakely (Laurie Davidson).

'Ruth is contradictory, electric and this absolute force who has gone after a big, bright life for herself,' shares Boynton. 'There's chemistry between her and David and a magnetism that keeps drawing them back. They're both incredibly intense.

However, the torrid and toxic romance comes to a shocking and violent conclusion when Ellis shoots Blakely dead outside The Magdala pub in Hampstead - and following her arrest and confession to the police, she heads to trial at the Old Bailey...