Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Cast: Lucy Boynton, Toby Jones, Toby Stephens, Mark Stephens, Joe Armstrong, Mark Stanley, Juliet Stephenson, Bessie Carter, Arthur Darvill, Laurie Davidson, Amanda Drew, Gloria Obianyo, Jack Staddon, Ed Sayer, Adam Lawrence, Tony Wadham, Sidney Jackson, Darren Charman, Tim Pierpoint, Maddy Hill, Rowan Robinson, Audrey Brisson, Nigel Havers.
We live in a different time, crimes for the most part that shocked a generation that was still living with the hangover from the Victorian era, and which carried a greater degree of punishment, now would be scoured over completely, every detail of the crime pursued and in some cases the public response would be more noticeable, more intense, as social media informed people of everything that was reported; and an awful lot that wasn’t.
Today the death penalty imposed on Ruth Ellis still stirs the emotions of those vehemently against the use of capital crime decreed by the state on a person; and just as much as those who would declare openly that it should be reinstated for certain crimes; and there is no halfway measure. Either we move on and forgive, or we demand justice for those whose lives have been taken.
A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story sees the former nightclub hostess’ tale of murder and death, the moment of decision in which, for her own reason, or egged on by other forces, to take the life of David Blakley, and so set in stone the motion to abolish the death penalty for women…no matter the heinous reveal of the crime.
One could argue, as the television series makes great pains to illuminate to the viewer, that Ruth Ellis was a different kind of killer, and in many ways the force of strength and resolution shown by Lucy Boynton’s portrayal of the wronged women, suffering under the strain of miscarriage after being beaten by her lover, that whilst under the great mental strain of loss, jealousy, and the lack of expertise in her defence to overcome the all-boys club that wanted to see punishment exceed the crime.
Whilst it could be argued that murder is murder and deserves the full force of the law, Homicide Act of 1957 marks the crucial difference between that of intent and that of defence, and this is where arguments will be heard in favour of Ruth Ellis in the modern day, the moment of being punched in the stomach which caused the miscarriage of the unborn baby, became in itself a miscarriage of justice, and one that should now, like Derek Bentley’s overturning of the original sentence, be seen as possible as leading to a posthumous pardon.
A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story is soft on the eye, it does not pursue the line of complete violence and over passionate demands for the irrational addition of scenes that add nothing to the case; facts, cold, hard, and in many ways, damnable, but nevertheless ones that show the steel of the woman, and the crime committed.
Ian D. Hall