How Ruth hated her grandfather

Ruth Wilson says she grew to “hate” her bigamist grandad Alexander while playing her own grandmother in BBC drama Mrs Wilson.

The Luther actress, 36, said that while shooting the true story of the spy and author’s four wives and seven children, she regretted taking the role.

Ruth said her feelings for her grandad, whom she never met, changed dramatically during filming. “When I was inside my grandmother’s skin I was like, ‘I hate him’,” she confessed. How could he do this? A week into the performance I wished someone else was playing her.” In the three-part drama, starting on November 27, Ruth plays her gran Alison, married to Alexander for 22 years. After he died in 1963, she found he had another wife and children. The family later discovered he had a two further wives. Ruth said making the drama, based on her grandmother’s memoirs, was “the most profound experience of my life”.