Handcuffed and doomed: Lucy Boynton as Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, in her most dramatic role yet

By Jo Macfarlane

With her bleached, coiffured hair, bright red lipstick and immaculate wool suit, this is rising star Lucy Boynton in her most dramatic role to date – as the final woman in Britain to be sent to the gallows.

Our exclusive pictures show for the first time Boynton as Ruth Ellis, who was executed aged just 28 in 1955 after killing her lover, racing driver David Blakely.

She is seen in scenes filmed last week recreating the moment Ellis, flanked by two police officers, was brought before magistrates after being charged with the murder.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-12526759/Handcuffed-doomed-Lucy-Boynton-Ruth-Ellis-woman-hanged-Britain-dramatic-role-yet.html

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Two more press images, from the production:

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Thanks for reminding me this one is still on the boil.
Here's some more pics from them recreating the murder on the actual spot outside the Magdala in Hampstead.

I frequently detour past there to check they've still left the infamous bullet holes in the wall, despite the recent hiatus and renovation.
Though it's harder nowadays to con the tourists, since it's becoming wider known about the enterprising landlady and her night-time foray with her trusty Black and Decker.

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>Thanks for reminding me this one is still on the boil.

Boiling hot, indeed.

Do you think they will depict the actual hanging?
(I know that's a sensitive topic in England.)

 

Do I think they will depict the hanging? That's a difficult one to call.

But I quote from the ITV press release:-
"The drama depicts .......etc, etc.......and the subsequent legal fight to reprieve her before she was hanged by infamous hangman, Albert Pierrepoint, in Holloway Prison".
Would they specifically name the executioner and the prison, if those two were not going to feature significantly in the production?

Just my instinctive hunch, I may well be completely off the mark.

 

"The drama depicts .......etc, etc.......and the subsequent legal fight to reprieve her before she was hanged by infamous hangman, Albert Pierrepoint, in Holloway Prison".

That could be taken several ways, including it covers up to but not inclusing the execution.

I tend to assume the worst outcome, with the fade to back before the actual deed, but am prepared to be suprised.

A trivia point - Juliet Stevenson is cast as the prison governor, and also played Albert Pierrepoint's wife in 'Pierrepoint'

 

I guess one clue would be if an actor is cast for Albert Pierrepoint

 

I guess one clue would be if an actor is cast for Albert Pierrepoint

 

>Juliet Stevenson is cast as the prison governor,
>and also played Albert Pierrepoint's wife in 'Pierrepoint'

I noticed that ;)

Maybe she's getting into the idea, and next time she'll be the condemned...
(She would be well cast as Ann Protheroe, the convicted murderess in The Murder at the Vicarage.)

https://themiscollection.com/set/The_Murder_at_the_Vicarage_(2004)

 

Just found a couple of reports from local news outlets down in Dorset.
Filming for the drama has taken place in Dorchester Prison (standing in for Holloway) with one of the cells being labelled ‘Ruth’s cell.’
More interesting are the comments that the prison's historic ‘B Wing Hanging Shed’ was completely closed for filming,
and that one of the cast trailers was seen to be labelled as allocated to 'Albert Pierrepoint'.

 

>the prison's historic ‘B Wing Hanging Shed’ was completely closed for filming
>one of the cast trailers was seen to be labelled as allocated to 'Albert Pierrepoint'.

Oh my my.

(And I'm impressed by the level of media attention this production is receiving.)

 

Hey Aristarchus, are there any photos of this "historic B Wing Hanging Shed?"

I would be intrigued to see what it looks like.
Is it a proper mid-century English gallowsroom?

 

Hmm - I found no reference to the "historic B Wing Hanging Shed" apart from articles about the filming.

I did find a reference to a hanging shed that had been knocked down:

https://www.slow-travel.uk/post/dorchester-prison

"Ed stopped next to a blue shutter high on a wall and told us this was once the site of the hanging shed, until it was knocked down and replaced with modern kitchens.

Executions had taken place in public until the end of the 19th century when the appetite for them as a form of entertainment had waned with Victorian sensibilities. After that, executions had moved within the prison walls. Dorchester Prison had nine executions in the past 150 years, the youngest being a 15 year old who was hanged for arson.

At the time it was considered a 'cruel and unusual' punishment to make the condemned walk too long to the site of their execution; many prisons of the time would have the hanging shed right next to the cell. Here in Dorchester Prison, it was a two minute walk from cell to scaffold, which was considered too long. The hanging shed was last used in 1941"

 

Yes, that was the extent of my own searching.
Be mindful that my quotes were from local news media, and could well be exaggerated to promote the area's tourist industry.

The term shed usually applied to wooden structures erected over open courtyards where executions formerly took place. I believe there used to be one at the Tower of London. Most, if not all, would have been dismantled, along with any wooden scaffold, with the abolition of the death penalty.

Dorchester is, I understand, a disused Victorian building awaiting redevelopment into flats and stuff. But in the meantime it has been open to tours.
I'm wondering if a replica shed and gallows have been knocked up on the old site, for the entertainment of the tourists. And it is this that the film crew were using.

So don't expect historical accuracy. But if we get a halfway decent scene and the reports prove to be true, I promise never to make fun of Dorset yokels again.

 

Any idea when it’s coming on or out ?

 

There seems to have been some movement.

It's official name is 'A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story' and there are some photos:
.
There seems to be a screening at London TV Screenings
on Tuesday, 10.30am-7.30pm, Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, although I think you need to
be an insider to attend the screenings.

NO official screen date, I'd guess later this year.

Some links:

https://deadline.com/2024/02/london-tv-screenings-bbc-studios-itv-banijay-fremantle-1235829736/
https://www.itv.com/presscentre/media-releases/itv-and-silverprint-pictures-release-first-look-image-lucy-boynton-ruth-ellis
https://www.whattowatch.com/watching-guides/ruth-cast-plot-and-all-about-the-powerful-drama-that-follows-the-famous-ruth-ellis-murder-case

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>NO official screen date, I'd guess later this year.

Or sooner, perhaps.

If the producers are showing it to insiders,
maybe they're just tying up loose ends.

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