The Real Ruth Ellis (2025) Movie Script
1
RUTH ELLIS,
SINGING:
I can't begin to imagine
what was going on in her head.
AMANDA DREW: Brought up in poverty,
Ruth Ellis fought her way to a life
mixing with the elite
of 1950s London.
This was where she met
driver David Blakely.
He was delightful. He was charming.
The man she loved,
the man who would abuse her.
GLASS SMASHES
RUTH ON RECORDING:
And the man she would kill.
GUNSHOTS
RADIO: 'Ruth Ellis, sentenced to
death in accordance with the law.'
He tried desperately hard to
make her say, in front of the jury,
that she didn't intend
to kill the man.
She was the last woman
to be hanged in Britain.
She came to me as though
she was just walking
the ordinary way,
walked right to me.
She just puckered her lips as though
she was trying to smile, you know.
She was a brave woman.
Seven decades on,
the controversy
and the tragic drama of her story
still has the power to captivate.
LUCY BOYNTON: This role is
definitely heavier than any other.
I'm really surprised by the way that
I'm so emotionally affected by it.
But did the mother of two
deserve to be sent to the gallows?
She'd endured such a huge amount
of physical and emotional abuse
by the time that she turned up
at The Magdala that Easter Sunday.
Two lives that didn't make it to 30,
and one of 'em didn't deserve it,
and the other
shouldn't have done it.
She accepted her fate.
RUTH ON RECORDING:
TWEE SWING MUSIC
PLAYS
I'll be your sunshine
If you say you'll be mine
And we'll spend our days together
In any kind of weather
There'll be blue skies above
I'll be your moonbeam
If you stay a true dream...
The 1950s were an incredibly
narrow time to be a woman.
You were really pushed
into two roles.
The prime role was that
of the happy housewife.
There was the other role,
which was more the one
that Ruth was pushed into.
Ruth's life was as far from that of
a 1950s housewife as you could get.
By 26, she was the manager of an
exclusive Knightsbridge nightclub.
The Little Club was owned
by Morrie Conley,
one of London's most notorious
gangsters and pimps.
And he certainly had
a lot of connections
to the underworld in London
at the time,
which was thriving.
She had fallen into a world,
the world of clubland,
which, for many people,
would have been disreputable
and something
that a decent girl didn't do.
And was described
as a "nightclub hostess",
a pseudonym for a prostitute.
She won his trust.
She really knew
what she was good at.
She was obviously
a very good people person.
She was, erm...
She was ahead of her time.
All that we dream of.
Ruth was born in Rhyl, North Wales,
in 1926, the fifth of six children.
Her father, Arthur Hornby,
was a musician,
and her mother, Bertha,
was a Belgian Jewish refugee.
When cinemas switched to talkies,
Arthur lost his job,
plunging the family
into extreme poverty.
They moved to London,
but home life was harsh and violent.
CAROL ANN LEE: I think life
must have been really hard
for Ruth as a young girl
because she was being constantly
moved about from school to school.
Ruth's father was very abusive
to her mother,
and he eventually became abusive
towards his children,
especially his daughters.
LAURA ENSTON: Her childhood
was pretty shambolic.
But I think the big thing
that sort of ran through her life
was that
she was incredibly independent,
and she was determined
to make something of herself.
At the height of the war,
aged just 16,
she fell in love
with a Canadian airman.
When she got pregnant,
he promised to marry her.
She'd got pregnant and had a baby
outside of marriage -
a source of great shame
at that time.
Having an illegitimate child
was really problematic.
Nine months after giving birth to
her son Andre, she'd been abandoned.
The man she thought she loved
already had a family back in Quebec.
By the end of the war,
Ruth was working as a waitress
in Central London.
She was determined
to become self-sufficient,
to make a proper life
for herself and her son.
She was chasing the bright lights
of London.
She wanted to be, er, a superstar.
She was obviously
a very good-looking lady
who had a lot of character.
Ruth got work as a model and
as a hostess in a Mayfair nightclub.
She was earning 5 per week
plus drinks commission,
more money
than she had ever made before.
RUTH: Good evening. Welcome!
WOMAN: Oh, Ruth, you look wonderful.
RUTH GIGGLES Thank you.
Vickie.
VICKIE GASPS
What do you think?
Bloody gorgeous!
Hello, Cooch.
Hi.
Champagne?
Oh, please.
But Ruth was desperate
for stability,
and hostessing would never
give her that.
In 1950, the now 24-year-old
married one of her regulars.
George Ellis was a dentist,
17 years her senior.
I don't think she was mad keen
on him when she first met him.
He, I think,
effectively wore her down.
You know, one of the things
that attracted her to George
was the fact
that he was a professional.
He was a professional man.
His social status was higher
than that of her own.
Ruth left London for Southampton
to give herself and her son
a better life.
It was not to be.
George was a chronic alcoholic.
CAROL ANN LEE:
And from the off, it wasn't good.
He was very jealous of her.
She was quite jealous of him.
And he was drinking
incredibly heavily.
It was just a terrible relationship
from then on
that got even worse because
he became more and more violent.
In the spring of 1951,
Ruth appeared in the film
Lady Godiva Rides Again
alongside Joan Collins.
She was four months pregnant,
and her marriage was on the rocks.
By October, they'd separated.
Ruth was back in London with Andre
and her new baby daughter Georgina.
The relationship Ruth had
with George Ellis
was... completely and utterly toxic.
There was no saving it.
Ruth had to return to her life
as a hostess
to support herself and her children.
Then, in 1953,
Conley made Ruth the manager
of The Little Club in Kensington.
STEPHEN BEARD: That was a place
where men frequented
and had alcohol,
and naturally
most of the relationships
were formed on the premise
of a similarity or a love of...
drink, smoke, music and a good time.
The job came with a large,
rent-free flat above the club.
Now her family had a home,
and she finally had the
financial independence she craved.
And I think Ruth definitely saw that
as a potential avenue
to help her and her children,
you know,
have more comfort and security.
But that success and stability
would be short-lived.
Within a year,
she'd met David Blakely,
the man who'd bring her world
crashing down.
Can I buy you a drink?
I run this place, Mr Blakely.
Let me get YOU one.
LAURA ENSTON:
Things were good for Ruth.
She was the youngest club manageress
in London.
She had her own apartment.
She was earning really well,
she was looking after her kids.
Considering the background
that she had,
it was when David really came
into her life
that things started to unravel.
AMANDA DREW: David Blakely was
a former public schoolboy
who wanted to be
a motor racing champion.
This is a 70-year-old... racing suit
that my uncle David wore.
These are David's trophies
from racing at Silverstone.
And here, "DM Blakely, number 593.
"The St John's Horsfall meeting,
"Silverstone, July 1951."
So, he's just 22 years old,
and he's coming in second...
..at Silverstone.
Incredibly dapper.
A guy I not only looked up to
but was charming,
fun, funny, caring.
David Blakely grew up in Sheffield.
When he was a teenager,
his family life was shattered
when his father, a Scottish doctor,
was accused
of murdering his pregnant lover.
David's father, Dr Blakely,
found himself on a murder charge
because this young woman
and her child both died,
and he was accused, basically,
of killing them both.
Er, giving her some sort
of medication
that would bring on a miscarriage
but which did so
in such a brutal way
that the young woman ended up
losing her life, too.
After a trial,
Dr Blakely was acquitted
and returned to being a GP.
David's parents divorced.
His mother married Humphrey Cook,
one of Britain's wealthiest men,
and David went to live
in Cook's country estate.
I would spend the summers at the
house in Penn in Buckinghamshire,
and that was
how I got to know David.
I have fond memories
of sitting in David's car
and bouncing round the outrageous
country roads in his 1946 MG.
Look, we call it The Emperor.
This car is gonna make my name.
You don't believe me.
Mm.
ENGINE REVS,
SHE SCREAMS
Ruth was 26 and David 24
when they met.
She saw a handsome,
dashing, elegant young man
who was different
from other people she had known.
Ruth saw a more vulnerable side
to David,
beyond the charming
and dapper racing driver.
It wasn't all sexually driven.
From Ruth's perspective, she felt
as though that she could help him.
She could see
he was extremely vulnerable,
even though he had
this facade of confidence.
This is Clive Gunnell
and Anthony Findlater. Hello.
Ant's been working
on the car with me.
He's the money, and I'm the brains.
Hello. Hello.
And this is Carole Findlater.
Carole, Ruth Ellis.
Ruth works at The Little Club.
CAROLE: Does she, now?
Manages it, actually.
We brought champagne.
Oh. Let's crack it open, shall we?
Unfortunately,
Ant and Carole were snobs, really.
They made it quite clear that
they thought she was beneath them
and very much beneath David too.
No matter how lovely she was,
they really couldn't really
understand what David saw in her.
Despite being looked down
on by his friends,
Ruth and David became firm fixtures
of the Chelsea and Kensington
party scene.
They seemed infatuated.
He moved in with her
and her children
within a few weeks of meeting.
She was a really fun person
to be around.
She was always the person
who would start a party,
the last person to end a party.
But having said that,
the things that he kind of fell for
with Ruth
are the things that,
in the end, he hated.
Ruth was given a tape recorder
as a gift.
And for the last months of her life,
she recorded herself and David.
DAVID ON RECORDING:
RUTH ON RECORDING:
DAVID:
David particularly disliked one
of Ruth's admirers Desmond Cussen,
a former RAF pilot
turned company director.
Desmond Cussen was
strongly infatuated with Ruth,
which really annoyed David Blakely.
And so there was
this love triangle, if you like,
which was always, you know,
doomed for disaster.
In May 1954,
George Ellis filed for divorce.
He accused Ruth
of being an unfit mother
and pressured her to allow
a childless couple he knew
to foster their daughter.
George Ellis hated the idea of his
daughter living above a nightclub,
saying he had a solution.
Ruth didn't want to,
so she clearly did have
love for her daughter.
But eventually,
there was an element of Ruth wanting
something better for Georgina.
Ruth finally agreed.
Georgina went to live
with her father's friends
in Cheshire, 200 miles away.
She didn't wanna give Georgina up.
I think she probably found it hard
having a younger child
around the house
with the lifestyle
that she was leading.
By that time, David was spending
less and less time at home,
putting his effort and money
into his racing car, The Emperor.
He was working 18-hour days
on this car,
so he had found his direction.
And, erm, as many of us have,
when you find something that
you love and you're so devoted to,
that changes your life.
David spent most of the year
away racing.
In June, he was at Le Mans
with the Bristol Racing Team.
While he was gone, Desmond Cussen
tried to break him and Ruth apart.
When David was away
on race circuits,
Desmond would have done
his damnedest to spread
as much ill will or ill feelings
about Uncle David.
In London, Ruth throws a surprise
party for David's 25th birthday.
PARTYGOERS: Surprise!
Oh! I'm so sorry, darling.
David asked me to let you know
he can't make it.
Look, David's engaged
to be married to Mary Dawson.
He's been living here with me
for months.
You've been a lovely friend to him.
Bless you.
That evening,
Ruth invites Desmond Cussen
to her flat and her bed.
She was furious. She was upset.
So what she did, in revenge,
was she slept with a man
she knew David did not like.
David broke off his engagement
and returned to London.
Once again, Ruth believed they could
have a happy future together.
But the relationship came
at a huge emotional
and financial cost for Ruth.
David continued having affairs,
all the while living off her money.
RUTH ON RECORDING:
MAN: Mm-hm.
Mm.
And things were about
to get much worse.
I wondered if I might get
an advance on my wages.
Been sponging again, has he?
I'm gonna have to start
charging you rent on the flat.
You can't do that.
As their relationship deteriorated,
it became more violent.
LUCY BOYNTON: The intensity
of all of that passion and love
was equal to then the intensity
of violence in that relationship,
which then segued into this kind
of mental violence and mental abuse.
The physical abuse often left Ruth
covered in bruises,
though she would try
to defend herself.
There are many instances
where she took a good hiding.
I know she was small in stature,
but I think she threw punches back.
Those who knew David
couldn't imagine him capable
of such physical violence.
There are a lot of people
of that age who do stupid things.
But to the degree that he's been
painted as such a monster,
it's just hard to imagine.
Fed up with David's freeloading,
Conley sacked Ruth,
throwing her out of the flat.
Desmond took her and Andre in.
RUTH ON RECORDING:
Ruth now had no job,
no money and no home of her own.
But despite everything,
she and David couldn't stay away
from each other,
even though
his violence was escalating.
RUTH ON RECORDING:
I think it was, when you're
in the centre of that storm,
it's really hard to see
the full picture
and the full... perspective.
And so it was playing it
with that in mind
and playing it
that close to the flame.
I'm awfully afraid
I'm falling in love with you.
RUTH ON RECORDING:
AMANDA DREW: Ruth and Andre, her
son, were now living with Desmond,
after she lost her job and home
because of her relationship
with David.
Desmond hoped this would lead
to him and Ruth becoming closer.
The only saving grace,
from her perspective at the time,
was Andre.
And Desmond's promises around,
you know, how he would help Andre.
In February 1955, Ruth told Desmond
she wanted to get her own flat.
Desmond lent Ruth the deposit,
unaware it would become a love nest
for her and David.
INTERVIEWER: It must have been
difficult for you.
Well, it was sort of
always the, er...
..question that, er,
their association would discontinue.
And, er, I was prepared to put up
with it, I think, at the time,
and... in the hopes that it would.
There was an element
of him being genuine
and genuinely caring about her,
wanting to protect her.
But the other was also around
this sense of jealousy that,
"Why can't she see that a world
with me is, you know,
"far more safe and secure?"
But whatever
Desmond Cussen was hoping for,
it wasn't happening.
Ruth was now two months pregnant
with David's baby.
It was one thing for him
to use her as a sexual object,
but for him to even consider
a child with her
would have been
deeply inappropriate.
Of the circles that he moved in,
this is not on.
I'm sure that that gave expression
in the violence
that he used against her.
David, I am pregnant.
I sw...
SHE GRUNTS
SHE GASPS
He punched her in her stomach.
She lost the baby.
The impact of that,
psychologically, on Ruth...
just... you can't even imagine it,
I don't think.
And that was really
the beginning of the end.
She was miscarrying.
Obviously the hormones,
the emotions that come with that.
Ruth was devastated.
She was struggling physically
and emotionally.
Then, just a few days
after the miscarriage,
David told her he loved her again.
A side of his behaviour
that became mental abuse,
of his disappearance and return,
so the constant anticipation
of his return,
I think
psychologically impacts someone
so that you can't find
any stability in your sanity
or in... or physically, either.
And I think that could drive
a person quite mad.
With promises of being
a changed man,
David said he'd be at Ruth's flat by
8pm to spend the weekend with her.
He didn't show,
having already told his family
he'd ended the relationship.
There is no doubt that
he believed he had ended it,
erm, that he didn't want
to go back.
And he was seeking the advice
and solace and company
of two of his best friends.
WOMAN: 'Findlaters' residence.'
Is David there?
'No.'
WOMAN LAUGHS,
DISCONNECT TONE
ANTHONY: 'Hello?'
And who was that girl?
'Look. David isn't here. All right?'
DISCONNECT TONE
She thought she heard
David in the house,
and she thought
he was probably with the nanny.
She was really,
really just distraught.
Ruth called the Findlaters
twice more
then asked Desmond
to drive her there.
When they arrived,
David's car was parked outside.
You threw her at him. David!
David!
He's left you, Ruth.
You won't see him ever again.
You're lying.
I have only ever told you the truth.
You've never wanted to hear it.
He can't just walk away
with everything in ruins.
CAROL ANN LEE: She said, you know,
"He's let me down.
"He's let my son down.
He promised he would do this.
"I've paid for everything,
I've lost everything.
"I'm entitled to show my anger."
RUTH ON RECORDING:
That anger was building,
that quiet anger that she felt.
She just couldn't see a way out.
Over the Easter weekend,
Desmond drove Ruth
between the Findlaters
in North London and Buckinghamshire
several times looking for David.
I just wish he was dead.
I wish he was dead.
I wish he would jump in a lake
and drown, and I could just be free.
It is now believed
that Desmond gave Ruth a gun
and taught her how to shoot it.
GUNSHOTS,
BIRDS CAW
Her son, Andre,
later remembers seeing the weapon.
Desmond took Ruth to her flat,
where she put her son to bed.
It's thought he then drove her
back to the Findlaters
and left her there.
As David's car wasn't to be seen,
she walked to
the nearby Magdala pub.
On the Easter Sunday evening,
Ruth came down from Tanza Road,
behind me.
And she knew
that David and Clive had gone
into this pub here, The Magdala,
to get some more supplies
for their party.
She was looking
through the window here.
Two packs of cigarettes.
SHE INHALES,
EXHALES DEEPLY
Come on. Because we're having
a party round the corner.
Leave the poor guy alone.
'David and Clive came out
of the door there.'
Clive went across
to the passenger door.
Ruth shouted to David.
David!
'And he tried to ignore her.'
DAVID: Ruth, what are...?
'And she fired at him.'
GUNSHOTS
'She fired two more shots.'
Bullets puncture several
of David's major organs.
He died within minutes.
And while he collapsed
on the pavement completely,
she brought the gun up
to her temple
and brought it right up,
and her hand started to shake.
It was a very, very brutal shooting.
It did come across
as being so cold-blooded.
She was so focused
on what she wanted to do,
what she felt she had to do.
Ruth was arrested and taken
to Hampstead Police Station,
where she confessed
to killing David.
Her solicitor was this man,
John Bickford,
who spoke about the case
20 years later.
On the face of it,
the phrase "an open and shut case"
is virtually irresistible.
It looked like it, and that was why
the police didn't bother too much
to trace the story about the gun,
originally.
He was always very kind
and considerate.
Very focused, under...
Very, very keen on getting the facts
before he made any decisions.
Ruth told the police
she was given the gun by a customer
at her club years earlier,
insisting no-one else was involved,
then asked Bickford to tell
Desmond that she'd forgotten
to mention the gun had come
from a customer.
He said, "Well, um, the truth is
that I, in fact, gave her the gun,
"but the police don't know that."
And on her own insistence,
he cleaned the gun, oiled it,
cleaned all the bullets,
put them in the gun,
and then they went in the car,
together with the gun,
with the loaded gun,
in search of Blakely.
In his statement to the police,
Desmond said he had never seen Ruth
with the gun
and didn't know where it came from.
It was the story he stuck to
for the rest of his life.
Let me state quite clearly,
I did not give Ruth the gun,
nor on that occasion
did I drive her up to Hampstead.
While Ruth insisted he had,
she refused to allow Bickford
to use that in her defence.
She wanted to protect Desmond
because he'd supported her and
her son over the last few months.
She accepted her fate.
An eye for an eye and the crime
would be, you know, repaid.
She believed it was a fair exchange
then to give her life for his life,
like a certain
equalising of justice.
And there was also
the peace that came with
knowing that that torment was over.
I think almost, you know, she...
thought she'd be reunited
with David.
In a letter to David's mother,
Ruth wrote,
"I shall die loving your son,
and you shall be content
"knowing that his death
has been repaid."
Very few women commit murder,
and so the idea
that she was charged with murder
would have fascinated the general
public and the media at that time.
She insisted on going into court
looking very well-dressed,
re-blonded her hair in prison,
so she came across to the jury
as quite a hard-bitten character.
AMANDA DREW: Ruth only had
a few defences available to her
under 1955 law -
self-defence, insanity, proving
her innocence, and provocation.
If David did something
so terrible to you
it caused you
to temporarily lose control,
that could be a defence.
Provocation caused by
David's increasing violence
and her subsequent miscarriage
seemed to be her best option,
but the odds weren't great.
The law then was that
in order to plead provocation,
you had to show
that the act that provoked you
came immediately before your action,
and that wasn't the case
in Ruth Ellis.
The actions had accumulated
over many months.
The trial judge was Cecil Havers,
whose actor grandson Nigel
would subsequently play him
in the drama about the case.
I have very fond memories
of my grandfather.
I adored him, really.
He was a kind-hearted man,
and I do know that he had
great sympathy for-for Ruth.
It was commonplace
for people to say,
"Well, you know,
she must have had it coming to her.
"He must have been pushed
to the edge."
The assumptions always were
that women had brought things
onto their own heads.
Her leading counsel was
a man called Melford Stevenson.
He wouldn't have understood
what a woman might be feeling with
this kind of level of rejection -
the violence
that displayed that rejection,
the idea that she was being told
that she was really a trollop
and that she was of no value,
the way in which
she was so physically hurt
that she loses her pregnancy.
Ruth's fate was sealed by
prosecution barrister
Christmas Humphreys's
cross-examination.
Mrs Ellis, when you fired
that revolver at close range
into the body of David Blakely,
what did you intend to do?
Her answer was, "It is obvious.
"I intended to kill him."
She said on every occasion, "No, no,
no, I intended to kill him."
And the more you say that,
I'm afraid,
the more the jury
will convict you of murder.
In John Bickford's discussions
of Ruth Ellis,
he said, "Of course,
the facts were totally against us.
"We had no real hope
of securing an acquittal for her."
He tried desperately hard
to make her say,
in front of the jury,
that she didn't intend
to kill the man,
she was just driven to shoot him
because of provocation.
Sadly, she refused.
In the end, the defence
failed to convince the court
that Ruth had been provoked
as defined by the laws of the time.
The whole trial was a shambles.
Her defence was pitiful.
The trial lasted two days.
It really took no time at all for
the jury to decide on their verdict.
RECORDING: 'On June the 21st,
'Ruth Ellis was found guilty
of murder at the Old Bailey
'and sentenced to death
in accordance with the law.'
As Ruth waited in
Holloway Prison's condemned cell,
a public campaign began
to have her sentence commuted.
'During those three weeks,
while public controversy mounted,
'one man had
a terrible decision to make,
'Home Secretary Gwilym Lloyd George.
'He had to decide whether
or not to write the grim words,
' "the law must take its course." '
I know it upset my grandfather
enormously.
He wrote a letter
to the Home Secretary,
expressing she
did not deserve to be hanged.
Simple as that.
Others wrote to Home Secretary
Gwilym Lloyd George,
pleading him to show mercy,
while 50,000 people
from around the world signed
a petition asking for clemency.
People had realised
that this young woman,
with two young children,
who was just trying to make her way
in the world,
who was let down by so many men,
I think there was a sense of
everyone realising
that it was slightly inhumane.
Despite public pressure,
Lloyd George
refused to grant Ruth a reprieve.
I remember looking through
the little,
small Judas hole in the door,
and she was sat down at a table with
two wardresses at each side of her.
She tries to save herself
at the 11th hour.
She knew
a reprieve wasn't gonna happen,
she realised that Andy wasn't
going to be looked after by Desmond,
so she needed to be there
to look after Andy.
Ruth sacks
her solicitor John Bickford,
accusing him
of colluding with Desmond,
and replaces him
with Victor Mishcon,
her former divorce solicitor.
He wanted her to get clemency
so that she would serve her life
imprisonment but not be hanged.
Why has she fired you?
Been carrying a bomb
in my briefcase,
and I didn't have the guts
to detonate it.
He looked at me and said,
"Try and get her to tell you
"who gave her the gun."
Mishcon tells Ruth
to give a new statement
about where she got the gun
and to tell the truth.
Didn't she owe it to her son,
that he should know the truth?
Ruth tells Mishcon that
Desmond loaded and oiled the gun
before he drove her to Hampstead.
She said, "I haven't said any of
this before," and she used the word,
I remember so well,
"It would have been traitorous."
She was facing what she did,
why bring somebody else punishment
when it wasn't necessary?
I need the Permanent Undersecretary
of State.
He's at Ascot.
Well, get him bloody back
from Ascot.
What message should I give?
Tell him Ruth Ellis
isn't going to hang tomorrow.
Scotland Yard detectives
are tasked
to find Desmond
and question him about the gun.
I think that a jury knowing
that someone had shown her
how to use a gun,
had helped her in that way,
I think that Cussens might have
ended up being in the dock
as an accessory as well.
And once you have that, then
you start opening up the context.
I'm not sure that it would
have led to an acquittal,
but I think it probably
would have led to clemency,
and that's the important thing.
Victor Mishcon gets a call.
Desmond can't be found.
Ruth's last hope is gone.
RECORDING: 'All the hundreds
who waited at Holloway Jail
'on execution morning and for
the millions who stayed away,
'three questions remain -
should a woman hang?
'Should anyone hang at all? Or
should there be degrees of murder?'
Ruth wakes up, writes her final
letters and eats her last breakfast.
Then Holloway's governor
receives a call,
reportedly from the Home Office,
suggesting a last-minute reprieve
for Ruth.
One minute to, ma'am.
WOMAN: You can't make her wait.
It's torture.
I mean, it's got to be a hoax.
The call was a hoax.
The execution could carry on.
Follow me.
Pierrepoint steps up to the gallows.
She came to me as though she was
just walking in the ordinary way,
walked right to me.
And as soon as she hears
his feet stop moving,
she then probably knows that
the next sound she'll hear
is some form of lever,
a lever to death.
It's, er, yeah, quite a... Urgh!
..quite a horrible kind of thought.
Don't worry, lass, I won't hurt you.
I can't begin to imagine
what was going on in her head.
She maintained her composure,
though, um,
you know,
really right up till the very end.
She never spoke to me.
I can see her now.
Just flicked her eyes,
and she just puckered her lips
as though she was trying to smile,
you know.
She was a brave woman.
GASPING
Georgina was
only three years old,
and Andre was just ten
when their mother was executed.
My mum was a larger than life
character,
very similar to Ruth in some ways,
with the peroxide blonde hair.
She could turn a room immediately.
She could turn a man very quickly.
But she was ultimately very fun
and bubbly.
She found the desire
to move to London as well,
to also chase the bright lights.
You know, wanted to get onto films,
to be a singer.
I had a group of girlfriends
around, sort of, the age of 13, 14,
they would sit next to me in class
and-and draw the hangman game
and then sort of pass the paper
towards me.
It was, you know, very hard,
you know, Mum was so prolific.
She almost created this sort of
media circus around Ruth's name.
And I just didn't want to be
a part of that.
I lost my mother when I was
around 11 years old,
and I was always
trying to understand, you know,
what drove her,
what made her the woman she was.
You know, what was she seeking?
Which was, ultimately, her identity.
Georgina was eight
when she first learned the truth
about her mother's death.
I discovered the cuttings,
and there they were.
There the story was
all in front of me, so I-I realised.
I saw the picture of her
and remembered her as a small child.
Georgina passed away in 2001,
at the age of 50,
after a long battle with cancer.
The ripple effect
has affected all of us.
It's been a heavy burden.
It's almost felt like
I've been swimming in wet clothes.
I spent sort of 40-something years
avoiding the subject,
not talking about it.
The controversy
around Ruth's execution
led to major changes in law.
In 1957, the defence of diminished
responsibility was established,
a defence that could have
prevented Ruth's execution.
Her death
really gave the campaign
for abolition to stop execution,
it gave it its emotional spur.
She was very young.
She was in her 20s still,
but unfortunately,
she fell in love with David,
and I think she did die loving him.
It's very, very sad.
There are two lives
that-that didn't make it to 30.
And one of 'em didn't deserve it,
and the other
shouldn't have done it.
What her grandchildren, family,
have gone through,
I can certainly appreciate
and understand that side
of the tragedy.
She is a murderer, but she didn't
deserve to be taken from the world
in the way that she was.
And equally,
you know, I have huge sympathy
for-for David Blakely's family.
He was a young man
who had the world ahead of him.
He equally didn't deserve to die,
which is why ultimately, you know,
the whole story is sadness.
Ruth was a trailblazer in life,
she was a trailblazer in death.
Ultimately, this case triggered
major judicial reform in the UK.
She didn't die in vain...
..and I take some comfort from that.
RUTH ELLIS,
SINGING:
I can't begin to imagine
what was going on in her head.
AMANDA DREW: Brought up in poverty,
Ruth Ellis fought her way to a life
mixing with the elite
of 1950s London.
This was where she met
driver David Blakely.
He was delightful. He was charming.
The man she loved,
the man who would abuse her.
GLASS SMASHES
RUTH ON RECORDING:
And the man she would kill.
GUNSHOTS
RADIO: 'Ruth Ellis, sentenced to
death in accordance with the law.'
He tried desperately hard to
make her say, in front of the jury,
that she didn't intend
to kill the man.
She was the last woman
to be hanged in Britain.
She came to me as though
she was just walking
the ordinary way,
walked right to me.
She just puckered her lips as though
she was trying to smile, you know.
She was a brave woman.
Seven decades on,
the controversy
and the tragic drama of her story
still has the power to captivate.
LUCY BOYNTON: This role is
definitely heavier than any other.
I'm really surprised by the way that
I'm so emotionally affected by it.
But did the mother of two
deserve to be sent to the gallows?
She'd endured such a huge amount
of physical and emotional abuse
by the time that she turned up
at The Magdala that Easter Sunday.
Two lives that didn't make it to 30,
and one of 'em didn't deserve it,
and the other
shouldn't have done it.
She accepted her fate.
RUTH ON RECORDING:
TWEE SWING MUSIC
PLAYS
I'll be your sunshine
If you say you'll be mine
And we'll spend our days together
In any kind of weather
There'll be blue skies above
I'll be your moonbeam
If you stay a true dream...
The 1950s were an incredibly
narrow time to be a woman.
You were really pushed
into two roles.
The prime role was that
of the happy housewife.
There was the other role,
which was more the one
that Ruth was pushed into.
Ruth's life was as far from that of
a 1950s housewife as you could get.
By 26, she was the manager of an
exclusive Knightsbridge nightclub.
The Little Club was owned
by Morrie Conley,
one of London's most notorious
gangsters and pimps.
And he certainly had
a lot of connections
to the underworld in London
at the time,
which was thriving.
She had fallen into a world,
the world of clubland,
which, for many people,
would have been disreputable
and something
that a decent girl didn't do.
And was described
as a "nightclub hostess",
a pseudonym for a prostitute.
She won his trust.
She really knew
what she was good at.
She was obviously
a very good people person.
She was, erm...
She was ahead of her time.
All that we dream of.
Ruth was born in Rhyl, North Wales,
in 1926, the fifth of six children.
Her father, Arthur Hornby,
was a musician,
and her mother, Bertha,
was a Belgian Jewish refugee.
When cinemas switched to talkies,
Arthur lost his job,
plunging the family
into extreme poverty.
They moved to London,
but home life was harsh and violent.
CAROL ANN LEE: I think life
must have been really hard
for Ruth as a young girl
because she was being constantly
moved about from school to school.
Ruth's father was very abusive
to her mother,
and he eventually became abusive
towards his children,
especially his daughters.
LAURA ENSTON: Her childhood
was pretty shambolic.
But I think the big thing
that sort of ran through her life
was that
she was incredibly independent,
and she was determined
to make something of herself.
At the height of the war,
aged just 16,
she fell in love
with a Canadian airman.
When she got pregnant,
he promised to marry her.
She'd got pregnant and had a baby
outside of marriage -
a source of great shame
at that time.
Having an illegitimate child
was really problematic.
Nine months after giving birth to
her son Andre, she'd been abandoned.
The man she thought she loved
already had a family back in Quebec.
By the end of the war,
Ruth was working as a waitress
in Central London.
She was determined
to become self-sufficient,
to make a proper life
for herself and her son.
She was chasing the bright lights
of London.
She wanted to be, er, a superstar.
She was obviously
a very good-looking lady
who had a lot of character.
Ruth got work as a model and
as a hostess in a Mayfair nightclub.
She was earning 5 per week
plus drinks commission,
more money
than she had ever made before.
RUTH: Good evening. Welcome!
WOMAN: Oh, Ruth, you look wonderful.
RUTH GIGGLES Thank you.
Vickie.
VICKIE GASPS
What do you think?
Bloody gorgeous!
Hello, Cooch.
Hi.
Champagne?
Oh, please.
But Ruth was desperate
for stability,
and hostessing would never
give her that.
In 1950, the now 24-year-old
married one of her regulars.
George Ellis was a dentist,
17 years her senior.
I don't think she was mad keen
on him when she first met him.
He, I think,
effectively wore her down.
You know, one of the things
that attracted her to George
was the fact
that he was a professional.
He was a professional man.
His social status was higher
than that of her own.
Ruth left London for Southampton
to give herself and her son
a better life.
It was not to be.
George was a chronic alcoholic.
CAROL ANN LEE:
And from the off, it wasn't good.
He was very jealous of her.
She was quite jealous of him.
And he was drinking
incredibly heavily.
It was just a terrible relationship
from then on
that got even worse because
he became more and more violent.
In the spring of 1951,
Ruth appeared in the film
Lady Godiva Rides Again
alongside Joan Collins.
She was four months pregnant,
and her marriage was on the rocks.
By October, they'd separated.
Ruth was back in London with Andre
and her new baby daughter Georgina.
The relationship Ruth had
with George Ellis
was... completely and utterly toxic.
There was no saving it.
Ruth had to return to her life
as a hostess
to support herself and her children.
Then, in 1953,
Conley made Ruth the manager
of The Little Club in Kensington.
STEPHEN BEARD: That was a place
where men frequented
and had alcohol,
and naturally
most of the relationships
were formed on the premise
of a similarity or a love of...
drink, smoke, music and a good time.
The job came with a large,
rent-free flat above the club.
Now her family had a home,
and she finally had the
financial independence she craved.
And I think Ruth definitely saw that
as a potential avenue
to help her and her children,
you know,
have more comfort and security.
But that success and stability
would be short-lived.
Within a year,
she'd met David Blakely,
the man who'd bring her world
crashing down.
Can I buy you a drink?
I run this place, Mr Blakely.
Let me get YOU one.
LAURA ENSTON:
Things were good for Ruth.
She was the youngest club manageress
in London.
She had her own apartment.
She was earning really well,
she was looking after her kids.
Considering the background
that she had,
it was when David really came
into her life
that things started to unravel.
AMANDA DREW: David Blakely was
a former public schoolboy
who wanted to be
a motor racing champion.
This is a 70-year-old... racing suit
that my uncle David wore.
These are David's trophies
from racing at Silverstone.
And here, "DM Blakely, number 593.
"The St John's Horsfall meeting,
"Silverstone, July 1951."
So, he's just 22 years old,
and he's coming in second...
..at Silverstone.
Incredibly dapper.
A guy I not only looked up to
but was charming,
fun, funny, caring.
David Blakely grew up in Sheffield.
When he was a teenager,
his family life was shattered
when his father, a Scottish doctor,
was accused
of murdering his pregnant lover.
David's father, Dr Blakely,
found himself on a murder charge
because this young woman
and her child both died,
and he was accused, basically,
of killing them both.
Er, giving her some sort
of medication
that would bring on a miscarriage
but which did so
in such a brutal way
that the young woman ended up
losing her life, too.
After a trial,
Dr Blakely was acquitted
and returned to being a GP.
David's parents divorced.
His mother married Humphrey Cook,
one of Britain's wealthiest men,
and David went to live
in Cook's country estate.
I would spend the summers at the
house in Penn in Buckinghamshire,
and that was
how I got to know David.
I have fond memories
of sitting in David's car
and bouncing round the outrageous
country roads in his 1946 MG.
Look, we call it The Emperor.
This car is gonna make my name.
You don't believe me.
Mm.
ENGINE REVS,
SHE SCREAMS
Ruth was 26 and David 24
when they met.
She saw a handsome,
dashing, elegant young man
who was different
from other people she had known.
Ruth saw a more vulnerable side
to David,
beyond the charming
and dapper racing driver.
It wasn't all sexually driven.
From Ruth's perspective, she felt
as though that she could help him.
She could see
he was extremely vulnerable,
even though he had
this facade of confidence.
This is Clive Gunnell
and Anthony Findlater. Hello.
Ant's been working
on the car with me.
He's the money, and I'm the brains.
Hello. Hello.
And this is Carole Findlater.
Carole, Ruth Ellis.
Ruth works at The Little Club.
CAROLE: Does she, now?
Manages it, actually.
We brought champagne.
Oh. Let's crack it open, shall we?
Unfortunately,
Ant and Carole were snobs, really.
They made it quite clear that
they thought she was beneath them
and very much beneath David too.
No matter how lovely she was,
they really couldn't really
understand what David saw in her.
Despite being looked down
on by his friends,
Ruth and David became firm fixtures
of the Chelsea and Kensington
party scene.
They seemed infatuated.
He moved in with her
and her children
within a few weeks of meeting.
She was a really fun person
to be around.
She was always the person
who would start a party,
the last person to end a party.
But having said that,
the things that he kind of fell for
with Ruth
are the things that,
in the end, he hated.
Ruth was given a tape recorder
as a gift.
And for the last months of her life,
she recorded herself and David.
DAVID ON RECORDING:
RUTH ON RECORDING:
DAVID:
David particularly disliked one
of Ruth's admirers Desmond Cussen,
a former RAF pilot
turned company director.
Desmond Cussen was
strongly infatuated with Ruth,
which really annoyed David Blakely.
And so there was
this love triangle, if you like,
which was always, you know,
doomed for disaster.
In May 1954,
George Ellis filed for divorce.
He accused Ruth
of being an unfit mother
and pressured her to allow
a childless couple he knew
to foster their daughter.
George Ellis hated the idea of his
daughter living above a nightclub,
saying he had a solution.
Ruth didn't want to,
so she clearly did have
love for her daughter.
But eventually,
there was an element of Ruth wanting
something better for Georgina.
Ruth finally agreed.
Georgina went to live
with her father's friends
in Cheshire, 200 miles away.
She didn't wanna give Georgina up.
I think she probably found it hard
having a younger child
around the house
with the lifestyle
that she was leading.
By that time, David was spending
less and less time at home,
putting his effort and money
into his racing car, The Emperor.
He was working 18-hour days
on this car,
so he had found his direction.
And, erm, as many of us have,
when you find something that
you love and you're so devoted to,
that changes your life.
David spent most of the year
away racing.
In June, he was at Le Mans
with the Bristol Racing Team.
While he was gone, Desmond Cussen
tried to break him and Ruth apart.
When David was away
on race circuits,
Desmond would have done
his damnedest to spread
as much ill will or ill feelings
about Uncle David.
In London, Ruth throws a surprise
party for David's 25th birthday.
PARTYGOERS: Surprise!
Oh! I'm so sorry, darling.
David asked me to let you know
he can't make it.
Look, David's engaged
to be married to Mary Dawson.
He's been living here with me
for months.
You've been a lovely friend to him.
Bless you.
That evening,
Ruth invites Desmond Cussen
to her flat and her bed.
She was furious. She was upset.
So what she did, in revenge,
was she slept with a man
she knew David did not like.
David broke off his engagement
and returned to London.
Once again, Ruth believed they could
have a happy future together.
But the relationship came
at a huge emotional
and financial cost for Ruth.
David continued having affairs,
all the while living off her money.
RUTH ON RECORDING:
MAN: Mm-hm.
Mm.
And things were about
to get much worse.
I wondered if I might get
an advance on my wages.
Been sponging again, has he?
I'm gonna have to start
charging you rent on the flat.
You can't do that.
As their relationship deteriorated,
it became more violent.
LUCY BOYNTON: The intensity
of all of that passion and love
was equal to then the intensity
of violence in that relationship,
which then segued into this kind
of mental violence and mental abuse.
The physical abuse often left Ruth
covered in bruises,
though she would try
to defend herself.
There are many instances
where she took a good hiding.
I know she was small in stature,
but I think she threw punches back.
Those who knew David
couldn't imagine him capable
of such physical violence.
There are a lot of people
of that age who do stupid things.
But to the degree that he's been
painted as such a monster,
it's just hard to imagine.
Fed up with David's freeloading,
Conley sacked Ruth,
throwing her out of the flat.
Desmond took her and Andre in.
RUTH ON RECORDING:
Ruth now had no job,
no money and no home of her own.
But despite everything,
she and David couldn't stay away
from each other,
even though
his violence was escalating.
RUTH ON RECORDING:
I think it was, when you're
in the centre of that storm,
it's really hard to see
the full picture
and the full... perspective.
And so it was playing it
with that in mind
and playing it
that close to the flame.
I'm awfully afraid
I'm falling in love with you.
RUTH ON RECORDING:
AMANDA DREW: Ruth and Andre, her
son, were now living with Desmond,
after she lost her job and home
because of her relationship
with David.
Desmond hoped this would lead
to him and Ruth becoming closer.
The only saving grace,
from her perspective at the time,
was Andre.
And Desmond's promises around,
you know, how he would help Andre.
In February 1955, Ruth told Desmond
she wanted to get her own flat.
Desmond lent Ruth the deposit,
unaware it would become a love nest
for her and David.
INTERVIEWER: It must have been
difficult for you.
Well, it was sort of
always the, er...
..question that, er,
their association would discontinue.
And, er, I was prepared to put up
with it, I think, at the time,
and... in the hopes that it would.
There was an element
of him being genuine
and genuinely caring about her,
wanting to protect her.
But the other was also around
this sense of jealousy that,
"Why can't she see that a world
with me is, you know,
"far more safe and secure?"
But whatever
Desmond Cussen was hoping for,
it wasn't happening.
Ruth was now two months pregnant
with David's baby.
It was one thing for him
to use her as a sexual object,
but for him to even consider
a child with her
would have been
deeply inappropriate.
Of the circles that he moved in,
this is not on.
I'm sure that that gave expression
in the violence
that he used against her.
David, I am pregnant.
I sw...
SHE GRUNTS
SHE GASPS
He punched her in her stomach.
She lost the baby.
The impact of that,
psychologically, on Ruth...
just... you can't even imagine it,
I don't think.
And that was really
the beginning of the end.
She was miscarrying.
Obviously the hormones,
the emotions that come with that.
Ruth was devastated.
She was struggling physically
and emotionally.
Then, just a few days
after the miscarriage,
David told her he loved her again.
A side of his behaviour
that became mental abuse,
of his disappearance and return,
so the constant anticipation
of his return,
I think
psychologically impacts someone
so that you can't find
any stability in your sanity
or in... or physically, either.
And I think that could drive
a person quite mad.
With promises of being
a changed man,
David said he'd be at Ruth's flat by
8pm to spend the weekend with her.
He didn't show,
having already told his family
he'd ended the relationship.
There is no doubt that
he believed he had ended it,
erm, that he didn't want
to go back.
And he was seeking the advice
and solace and company
of two of his best friends.
WOMAN: 'Findlaters' residence.'
Is David there?
'No.'
WOMAN LAUGHS,
DISCONNECT TONE
ANTHONY: 'Hello?'
And who was that girl?
'Look. David isn't here. All right?'
DISCONNECT TONE
She thought she heard
David in the house,
and she thought
he was probably with the nanny.
She was really,
really just distraught.
Ruth called the Findlaters
twice more
then asked Desmond
to drive her there.
When they arrived,
David's car was parked outside.
You threw her at him. David!
David!
He's left you, Ruth.
You won't see him ever again.
You're lying.
I have only ever told you the truth.
You've never wanted to hear it.
He can't just walk away
with everything in ruins.
CAROL ANN LEE: She said, you know,
"He's let me down.
"He's let my son down.
He promised he would do this.
"I've paid for everything,
I've lost everything.
"I'm entitled to show my anger."
RUTH ON RECORDING:
That anger was building,
that quiet anger that she felt.
She just couldn't see a way out.
Over the Easter weekend,
Desmond drove Ruth
between the Findlaters
in North London and Buckinghamshire
several times looking for David.
I just wish he was dead.
I wish he was dead.
I wish he would jump in a lake
and drown, and I could just be free.
It is now believed
that Desmond gave Ruth a gun
and taught her how to shoot it.
GUNSHOTS,
BIRDS CAW
Her son, Andre,
later remembers seeing the weapon.
Desmond took Ruth to her flat,
where she put her son to bed.
It's thought he then drove her
back to the Findlaters
and left her there.
As David's car wasn't to be seen,
she walked to
the nearby Magdala pub.
On the Easter Sunday evening,
Ruth came down from Tanza Road,
behind me.
And she knew
that David and Clive had gone
into this pub here, The Magdala,
to get some more supplies
for their party.
She was looking
through the window here.
Two packs of cigarettes.
SHE INHALES,
EXHALES DEEPLY
Come on. Because we're having
a party round the corner.
Leave the poor guy alone.
'David and Clive came out
of the door there.'
Clive went across
to the passenger door.
Ruth shouted to David.
David!
'And he tried to ignore her.'
DAVID: Ruth, what are...?
'And she fired at him.'
GUNSHOTS
'She fired two more shots.'
Bullets puncture several
of David's major organs.
He died within minutes.
And while he collapsed
on the pavement completely,
she brought the gun up
to her temple
and brought it right up,
and her hand started to shake.
It was a very, very brutal shooting.
It did come across
as being so cold-blooded.
She was so focused
on what she wanted to do,
what she felt she had to do.
Ruth was arrested and taken
to Hampstead Police Station,
where she confessed
to killing David.
Her solicitor was this man,
John Bickford,
who spoke about the case
20 years later.
On the face of it,
the phrase "an open and shut case"
is virtually irresistible.
It looked like it, and that was why
the police didn't bother too much
to trace the story about the gun,
originally.
He was always very kind
and considerate.
Very focused, under...
Very, very keen on getting the facts
before he made any decisions.
Ruth told the police
she was given the gun by a customer
at her club years earlier,
insisting no-one else was involved,
then asked Bickford to tell
Desmond that she'd forgotten
to mention the gun had come
from a customer.
He said, "Well, um, the truth is
that I, in fact, gave her the gun,
"but the police don't know that."
And on her own insistence,
he cleaned the gun, oiled it,
cleaned all the bullets,
put them in the gun,
and then they went in the car,
together with the gun,
with the loaded gun,
in search of Blakely.
In his statement to the police,
Desmond said he had never seen Ruth
with the gun
and didn't know where it came from.
It was the story he stuck to
for the rest of his life.
Let me state quite clearly,
I did not give Ruth the gun,
nor on that occasion
did I drive her up to Hampstead.
While Ruth insisted he had,
she refused to allow Bickford
to use that in her defence.
She wanted to protect Desmond
because he'd supported her and
her son over the last few months.
She accepted her fate.
An eye for an eye and the crime
would be, you know, repaid.
She believed it was a fair exchange
then to give her life for his life,
like a certain
equalising of justice.
And there was also
the peace that came with
knowing that that torment was over.
I think almost, you know, she...
thought she'd be reunited
with David.
In a letter to David's mother,
Ruth wrote,
"I shall die loving your son,
and you shall be content
"knowing that his death
has been repaid."
Very few women commit murder,
and so the idea
that she was charged with murder
would have fascinated the general
public and the media at that time.
She insisted on going into court
looking very well-dressed,
re-blonded her hair in prison,
so she came across to the jury
as quite a hard-bitten character.
AMANDA DREW: Ruth only had
a few defences available to her
under 1955 law -
self-defence, insanity, proving
her innocence, and provocation.
If David did something
so terrible to you
it caused you
to temporarily lose control,
that could be a defence.
Provocation caused by
David's increasing violence
and her subsequent miscarriage
seemed to be her best option,
but the odds weren't great.
The law then was that
in order to plead provocation,
you had to show
that the act that provoked you
came immediately before your action,
and that wasn't the case
in Ruth Ellis.
The actions had accumulated
over many months.
The trial judge was Cecil Havers,
whose actor grandson Nigel
would subsequently play him
in the drama about the case.
I have very fond memories
of my grandfather.
I adored him, really.
He was a kind-hearted man,
and I do know that he had
great sympathy for-for Ruth.
It was commonplace
for people to say,
"Well, you know,
she must have had it coming to her.
"He must have been pushed
to the edge."
The assumptions always were
that women had brought things
onto their own heads.
Her leading counsel was
a man called Melford Stevenson.
He wouldn't have understood
what a woman might be feeling with
this kind of level of rejection -
the violence
that displayed that rejection,
the idea that she was being told
that she was really a trollop
and that she was of no value,
the way in which
she was so physically hurt
that she loses her pregnancy.
Ruth's fate was sealed by
prosecution barrister
Christmas Humphreys's
cross-examination.
Mrs Ellis, when you fired
that revolver at close range
into the body of David Blakely,
what did you intend to do?
Her answer was, "It is obvious.
"I intended to kill him."
She said on every occasion, "No, no,
no, I intended to kill him."
And the more you say that,
I'm afraid,
the more the jury
will convict you of murder.
In John Bickford's discussions
of Ruth Ellis,
he said, "Of course,
the facts were totally against us.
"We had no real hope
of securing an acquittal for her."
He tried desperately hard
to make her say,
in front of the jury,
that she didn't intend
to kill the man,
she was just driven to shoot him
because of provocation.
Sadly, she refused.
In the end, the defence
failed to convince the court
that Ruth had been provoked
as defined by the laws of the time.
The whole trial was a shambles.
Her defence was pitiful.
The trial lasted two days.
It really took no time at all for
the jury to decide on their verdict.
RECORDING: 'On June the 21st,
'Ruth Ellis was found guilty
of murder at the Old Bailey
'and sentenced to death
in accordance with the law.'
As Ruth waited in
Holloway Prison's condemned cell,
a public campaign began
to have her sentence commuted.
'During those three weeks,
while public controversy mounted,
'one man had
a terrible decision to make,
'Home Secretary Gwilym Lloyd George.
'He had to decide whether
or not to write the grim words,
' "the law must take its course." '
I know it upset my grandfather
enormously.
He wrote a letter
to the Home Secretary,
expressing she
did not deserve to be hanged.
Simple as that.
Others wrote to Home Secretary
Gwilym Lloyd George,
pleading him to show mercy,
while 50,000 people
from around the world signed
a petition asking for clemency.
People had realised
that this young woman,
with two young children,
who was just trying to make her way
in the world,
who was let down by so many men,
I think there was a sense of
everyone realising
that it was slightly inhumane.
Despite public pressure,
Lloyd George
refused to grant Ruth a reprieve.
I remember looking through
the little,
small Judas hole in the door,
and she was sat down at a table with
two wardresses at each side of her.
She tries to save herself
at the 11th hour.
She knew
a reprieve wasn't gonna happen,
she realised that Andy wasn't
going to be looked after by Desmond,
so she needed to be there
to look after Andy.
Ruth sacks
her solicitor John Bickford,
accusing him
of colluding with Desmond,
and replaces him
with Victor Mishcon,
her former divorce solicitor.
He wanted her to get clemency
so that she would serve her life
imprisonment but not be hanged.
Why has she fired you?
Been carrying a bomb
in my briefcase,
and I didn't have the guts
to detonate it.
He looked at me and said,
"Try and get her to tell you
"who gave her the gun."
Mishcon tells Ruth
to give a new statement
about where she got the gun
and to tell the truth.
Didn't she owe it to her son,
that he should know the truth?
Ruth tells Mishcon that
Desmond loaded and oiled the gun
before he drove her to Hampstead.
She said, "I haven't said any of
this before," and she used the word,
I remember so well,
"It would have been traitorous."
She was facing what she did,
why bring somebody else punishment
when it wasn't necessary?
I need the Permanent Undersecretary
of State.
He's at Ascot.
Well, get him bloody back
from Ascot.
What message should I give?
Tell him Ruth Ellis
isn't going to hang tomorrow.
Scotland Yard detectives
are tasked
to find Desmond
and question him about the gun.
I think that a jury knowing
that someone had shown her
how to use a gun,
had helped her in that way,
I think that Cussens might have
ended up being in the dock
as an accessory as well.
And once you have that, then
you start opening up the context.
I'm not sure that it would
have led to an acquittal,
but I think it probably
would have led to clemency,
and that's the important thing.
Victor Mishcon gets a call.
Desmond can't be found.
Ruth's last hope is gone.
RECORDING: 'All the hundreds
who waited at Holloway Jail
'on execution morning and for
the millions who stayed away,
'three questions remain -
should a woman hang?
'Should anyone hang at all? Or
should there be degrees of murder?'
Ruth wakes up, writes her final
letters and eats her last breakfast.
Then Holloway's governor
receives a call,
reportedly from the Home Office,
suggesting a last-minute reprieve
for Ruth.
One minute to, ma'am.
WOMAN: You can't make her wait.
It's torture.
I mean, it's got to be a hoax.
The call was a hoax.
The execution could carry on.
Follow me.
Pierrepoint steps up to the gallows.
She came to me as though she was
just walking in the ordinary way,
walked right to me.
And as soon as she hears
his feet stop moving,
she then probably knows that
the next sound she'll hear
is some form of lever,
a lever to death.
It's, er, yeah, quite a... Urgh!
..quite a horrible kind of thought.
Don't worry, lass, I won't hurt you.
I can't begin to imagine
what was going on in her head.
She maintained her composure,
though, um,
you know,
really right up till the very end.
She never spoke to me.
I can see her now.
Just flicked her eyes,
and she just puckered her lips
as though she was trying to smile,
you know.
She was a brave woman.
GASPING
Georgina was
only three years old,
and Andre was just ten
when their mother was executed.
My mum was a larger than life
character,
very similar to Ruth in some ways,
with the peroxide blonde hair.
She could turn a room immediately.
She could turn a man very quickly.
But she was ultimately very fun
and bubbly.
She found the desire
to move to London as well,
to also chase the bright lights.
You know, wanted to get onto films,
to be a singer.
I had a group of girlfriends
around, sort of, the age of 13, 14,
they would sit next to me in class
and-and draw the hangman game
and then sort of pass the paper
towards me.
It was, you know, very hard,
you know, Mum was so prolific.
She almost created this sort of
media circus around Ruth's name.
And I just didn't want to be
a part of that.
I lost my mother when I was
around 11 years old,
and I was always
trying to understand, you know,
what drove her,
what made her the woman she was.
You know, what was she seeking?
Which was, ultimately, her identity.
Georgina was eight
when she first learned the truth
about her mother's death.
I discovered the cuttings,
and there they were.
There the story was
all in front of me, so I-I realised.
I saw the picture of her
and remembered her as a small child.
Georgina passed away in 2001,
at the age of 50,
after a long battle with cancer.
The ripple effect
has affected all of us.
It's been a heavy burden.
It's almost felt like
I've been swimming in wet clothes.
I spent sort of 40-something years
avoiding the subject,
not talking about it.
The controversy
around Ruth's execution
led to major changes in law.
In 1957, the defence of diminished
responsibility was established,
a defence that could have
prevented Ruth's execution.
Her death
really gave the campaign
for abolition to stop execution,
it gave it its emotional spur.
She was very young.
She was in her 20s still,
but unfortunately,
she fell in love with David,
and I think she did die loving him.
It's very, very sad.
There are two lives
that-that didn't make it to 30.
And one of 'em didn't deserve it,
and the other
shouldn't have done it.
What her grandchildren, family,
have gone through,
I can certainly appreciate
and understand that side
of the tragedy.
She is a murderer, but she didn't
deserve to be taken from the world
in the way that she was.
And equally,
you know, I have huge sympathy
for-for David Blakely's family.
He was a young man
who had the world ahead of him.
He equally didn't deserve to die,
which is why ultimately, you know,
the whole story is sadness.
Ruth was a trailblazer in life,
she was a trailblazer in death.
Ultimately, this case triggered
major judicial reform in the UK.
She didn't die in vain...
..and I take some comfort from that.