A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story
BritBox | Release Date: February 17, 2025
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
VarietyAramide TinubuFeb 21, 2025
Season 1 Review: The entire show is rapidly paced and full of information, but the second half of “A Cruel Love” is the more compelling. .... Moving beyond Ruth, the series is even more riveting when it looks toward the societal standards of the time. Read full review
80
iJulia RaesideMar 7, 2025
Season 1 Review: As a period piece, it’s polished and beautifully shot, but as an agent of change, the jury is still out. Read full review
80
The IndependentPhil HarrisonMar 5, 2025
Season 1 Review: The excellent lead, Lucy Boynton, is equal parts insolent charisma and wary vulnerability, a woman so accustomed to withstanding life’s hard knocks that she finds it difficult to let her guard down under any circumstances. If the story has a moral centre, it is provided by Toby Jones’s John Bickford. Jones is as superb as ever, albeit in the kind of role he’s perhaps in danger of finding himself stuck in for good. Read full review
80
The TelegraphAnita Singh Mar 5, 2025
Season 1 Review: It’s a thought-provoking drama powered by a strong central performance from Lucy Boynton. Read full review
80
The TimesCarol MidgleyMar 5, 2025
Season 1 Review: All four episodes are available but the last is the most affecting. Particularly the scenes that show Ellis spending her final weeks in Holloway prison. Read full review
80
DeciderJoel KellerFeb 21, 2025
Season 1 Review: While we wish there was a bit more of Ruth Ellis’ backstory at the beginning of A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, it’s still an intriguing story about the last woman executed in Great Britain, with a fine lead performance by Lucy Boynton. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Barbara EllenMar 10, 2025
Season 1 Review: A Cruel Love is marred by crass melodrama. .... In later episodes, Boynton brings Ellis’s humanity and vulnerability to the fore (sitting in her cell doing jigsaws; nervously eating her last breakfast) and it’s very powerful. Read full review
60
The GuardianRebecca NicholsonMar 5, 2025
Season 1 Review: At times, A Cruel Love seems similarly hamstrung and never quite feels as if it gets to know Ellis. Perhaps that is the point. There are no clean lines. Read full review
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