'A Cruel Love': The Ruth Ellis Story - Laurie Davidson Interview
Laurie Davidson talks about the new ITV drama.
Ruth Ellis was born in 1926 as the fifth of six children. Her childhood was a difficult one; the family moved often all over the UK as her father struggled to find work. At 17 she found herself pregnant to a Canadian GI, the first man she’d loved but who she later learned was married and abandoned her. Ruth worked to support her and her son, taking elocution and modelling classes, ultimately becoming a hostess in London clubs. There she met dentist George Ellis who she married and had a daughter with. The relationship was volatile and abusive and they divorced shortly after. By 1953 Ruth became the manageress of the Little Club, a Knightsbridge hotspot. This was where Ruth met Desmond Cussen and also David Blakely, the man she would ultimately kill.
Laurie Davidson is David Blakely. David Blakely, a privately educated racing car driver, he was Ruth’s abusive lover and victim.
Who is David Blakely?
David Blakely was Ruth's boyfriend. He was a racing driver from quite a good family and they had a pestilent relationship over about two years involving a lot of alcohol and a lot of abuse and violence throughout. It resulted in several breakups and then eventually in Ruth’s murder of David. As we know, she was hanged, but Blakely was a domestic abuser and in today's legal climate he would have been the guilty party. Certainly, had Ruth’s legal team done what they should have done they would have shown that she was acting in fear and all of those things. I mean I'm not a lawyer, but it should have been a very different story in terms of her trial.
What did you know of this story before the script and the project came your way? Not loads actually. Lots of people I spoke to knew a lot about it but it was fascinating getting to learn what happened. Parts of this story have been told before in films and documentaries — Ruth Ellis is a character that clearly resonates. What she went through her whole life from childhood to its end was basically unimaginable - she suffered at the hands of so many awful men. David Blakely, in her own words, wasn't the worst of them. I mean that gives you an idea of the calibre of men that tormented her. Yet within all that she had a huge amount of life and verve and then also in the end this stoic integrity throughout her trial. She was an incredible woman I think. The subject matter here could be very depressing but actually, to see someone keep shining basically throughout all of it is quite powerful.
What's your approach when asked to play someone who has been pre-ordained as the villain of the piece?
different every time because it depends what the requirements are. The way Ruth spoke about David a lot of the time was that she was madly in love with him. He was the only man she ever loved and she implied that there was a lot of light with the shade. There's so much heavy material in this so one of the things we wanted to show was the contrast between the things that we see in the present in the trial with Lucy and Toby, and when they go back in time to the early days of their relationship. We need that contrast with the colour and joy and love of the relationship because as Lee [director] said, we have to start it in a different place to how we finish it, so it can go somewhere that an audience can believe. I wasn't there. I will never know but I think the way she defended him and the way they keep going back to each other... they must have had some good times too. I approached it from the point of trying to really sell their love story. It sounds difficult for an audience when you know what is going to happen, but we have to be rooting for Ruth and David as a couple to succeed. I approached it from the fact that we need to believe these characters are in love for Ruth to keep going back, despite shocking treatment, of course. But she's had a string of awful men in her life; that's what she knows. I had to work out the relationship with Lucy [Boynton, Ruth] just in terms of what they were like together in the good times and the bad.
Because they came from very different social backgrounds…
Yes, she's not from that world and he was incredibly exotic in that way, but also actually it's quite interesting that David was part of the social upper-class and yet he was still interested in Ruth. I think he was able to put his head above the parapet in a way and out of his social circle and be more interested in what she had to offer. But he was a man of contradictions and then when alcohol comes into play it’s a disaster. Their whole relationship is these sobering moments after huge amounts of alcohol. They partied a lot and then they suffered from a huge hangover effect. I think he was an immature person and they just had a really toxic relationship.
How was it for you learning about how the legal system and society at large treated Ruth Ellis in 1955?
, I don't think I was that shocked. I didn't know that her trial had such a pivotal role in the changes of law to do with human rights in this country. But I think that I realised that the men who were in charge of her case and who had her life in their hands were so scared of disrupting the status quo and how things operate that they weren’t interested in any sort of justice — or in her, particularly. Here was this young woman from the lower classes who to all intents and purposes had been trodden down so many times that she was just beaten. That was why she did what she did. Yet she had this stoicism that I think frightened them. Given what I know of the British class system it's actually not that shocking the way they rounded on her and looked after their own. To me the shocking thing is Ruth's character — the nature of this woman and how incredible she was.