20 October 2025 

A new Welsh-language documentary, Ruth Ellis: Y Cariad a’r Crogi (The Lover and the Hanging), will air on S4C this Tuesday 21 October, shedding new light on the life, love, and legacy of the last woman to be hanged in Britain.

Told through a mix of archive footage, expert insight, and moving contributions from Ruth’s own family, the programme explores the turbulent life of a woman who became a victim, and whose death would help transform British justice.

Born in Rhyl in 1926, Ruth Ellis rose from humble beginnings to become a glamorous London nightclub manager in the 1950s - independent, ambitious, and ahead of her time. “She was everything that society wasn’t ready to accept,” says director Lee Haven Jones, who directed the acclaimed drama A Cruel Love about her life that was shown on ITV earlier this year.

But behind the glamour lay pain and abuse. Ruth’s childhood was marked by a violent father; as an adult she became trapped in a stormy and abusive relationship with racing driver David Blakely. What began as passion and excitement soon turned to jealousy, violence, and despair.

“There was a dark, violent side to their relationship,” Lee Haven Jones explains. Ruth herself, in a voice recording, can be heard saying bluntly: “David gave me a black eye.”

On Easter Sunday 1955, outside the Magdala pub in Hampstead, Ruth Ellis shot David Blakely four times. Her calm admission - “I intended to kill him” - left the court, and Britain, stunned.

Despite her evident distress and years of abuse, the law offered her little defence. The judge, Cecil Havers, later wrote that Ruth did not deserve to be hanged. But as Home Secretary Gwilym Lloyd George ruled, “the law must take its course.”

Just two weeks later, Ruth Ellis was executed at Holloway Prison - the last woman in Britain to face the gallows.

Ruth’s death provoked public outrage. More than 50,000 people signed a petition to save her, and her case directly led to the introduction of diminished responsibility in 1957 - a reform that might have saved her life. Her family this month, are making the case for a posthumous pardon for Ruth Ellis.

“She is a murderer,” says her grandson Stephen Beard, “but she didn’t deserve to be taken from the world in the way she was.”

Her granddaughter Laura Enston adds: “Ruth was a trailblazer in life, and she was a trailblazer in death - and I take comfort from that.”

Former judge Nic Parry reflects: “Because of the deep sadness in her life, there have been huge improvements for the better in the law of England and Wales - all because of what happened to Ruth Ellis.”

Director Lee Haven Jones describes Ruth’s story as “a tragedy - a loving relationship that turned bitter, an example of cruel love. That was the essence of Ruth and David’s relationship.”

Dr Nia Williams, a psychologist at Bangor University adds that the psychological pattern of returning to abusive relationships “sadly continues even today,” making Ruth’s story as relevant now as it was 70 years ago.

Seventy years after her death, Ruth Ellis: Y Cariad a’r Crogi revisits one of the most controversial and heartbreaking cases in British legal history. Through rare recordings, family testimony, and expert reflection, the documentary asks how a woman once branded “The Platinum Blonde Killer” became a catalyst for compassion and change.

As former judge Nic Parry concludes:

“There have been huge improvements for the better because of what happened to Ruth Ellis.”

Ruth Ellis: Y Cariad a’r Crogi is on S4C and includes English subtitles.