Actor Nigel Havers is set to star in the gripping ITV true crime drama A Cruel Love, which delves into the life of Ruth Ellis, and the seasoned actor has a fascinating personal connection to the tale. Known for his roles in Chariots of Fire, Coronation Street and the sitcom Don’t Wait Up, Nigel takes on the role of his own grandfather, Justice Cecil Havers, in the series. It was Cecil who handed down the death sentence to Ruth Ellis after she stood trial for the murder of her lover, David Blakely, back in 1955. Kate Bartlett, executive producer of A Cruel Love, shares that they approached Nigel about the role but were uncertain if he would accept. “We had lots of conversations going, ‘Oh, do you think he might? ‘ And he leapt at it,” she reveals. “We couldn’t quite believe it. So it was just amazing that he was playing his grandfather, it was extraordinary.” Director Lee Haven Jones adds that Nigel brought a wealth of personal insight to the role. “He was full of little observations about what his grandfather would do,” he says.
Nigel and his brother Phillip with their parents and grandfather Justice Cecil Havers
“Apparently his grandfather used to write all the time, he’d constantly be taking notes, and he liked to bet on the horses as well. So there were all of these little details and while we didn’t include all of them, it was nice to know that the role was imbued with a sense of authenticity.” A Cruel Love features Lucy Boynton as Ruth Ellis, the 28 year old nightclub manager who found herself in a tumultuous and abusive relationship with racing driver David Blakely, played by Laurie Davidson. Domestic violence marred the relationship, culminating in a harrowing finale when Ruth fired the fatal shot at David outside a Hampstead pub in April 1955, which led to her immediate arrest and murder trial. Lucy delves into the dynamics of their bond: “It was such a tumultuous relationship, but they couldn’t stay away from each other,” she shares. “Within weeks of meeting they were already living together. They seemed to be magnetised to each other. It’s hard for us on the outside to understand it but it was clearly intoxicating. And then it quickly turned very sour. He was very jealous, yet also unfaithful. He would promise her marriage, then disappear for days or weeks, telling all his friends they weren’t together anymore, then would return to her begging her to take him back. His physical abuse became so bad her friends were convinced he would kill her.”
Lucy Boynton stars as Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK
The drama series painstakingly re-enacts Ruth’s trial under the scrutiny of Justice Havers, where it took mere 20 minutes for the jury to find her guilty of murder. For Lucy, these courtroom sequences were among the most challenging to shoot. She reflects: “The days I filmed in court were very intense because for legal reasons and for accuracy, all dialogue is verbatim from the court transcripts. So we got a totally vivid experience of what that trial was like. How frustrating it was to sit through the misinformation and misrepresentation of Ruth’s experience. Because David Blakely was a member of the upper class it was deemed inappropriate to talk about his ugly behaviour, so none of the physical and emotional abuse he inflicted was mentioned, and therefore the case was entirely imbalanced and Ruth misrepresented.” “It was an incredibly intense shoot,” she continues. “The scenes of domestic violence were also hard to let go of when we wrapped.”
