Classic Serial - Ruth - Episode 1

Dramatisation by Ellen Dryden of the novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. Sixteen-year-old orphan Ruth Hilton is apprenticed as a dressmaker to the hard-bitten Mrs Mason, because she is too much of an inconvenience for her legal guardian. A job as a seamstress for a Hunt Ball and an encounter with a young man have far-reaching consequences. Ruth ...... Laura Rees Bellingham ...... Rory Kinnear Benson ...... Anton Lesser Mrs Mason ...... Abigail Thaw Guardian/Jones/Thomas ...... Richard Hope Nelly/Mrs Bellingham ...... Alison Skilbeck Miss Duncombe ...... Aimee Cowen Jenny ...... Helen Jenkinson Bessie ...... Daisy Ashford Directed by Ellen Dryden.