Ruth Madeley is currently taking on lead role, Dr Gabrielle Fox, in BBC’s thrilling new series The Rapture
Ruth Madeley is currently taking on lead role, Dr Gabrielle Fox, in BBC’s thrilling new series The Rapture(Image: BBC)
BBC viewers have been left hooked with new thriller show The Rapture.
The five-part psychological series is adapted from Liz Jensen’s bestselling novel. A synopsis teases of the show: “As temperatures rise, a convicted murderer foretells apocalyptic disaster – is she a manipulative psychopath or does she know the truth? High-stakes thriller crackling with danger.”
In the show, Ruth Madeley plays Dr Gabrielle Fox, who starts a new job at a psychiatric hospital where she is assigned 17-year-old inmate Bethany Krall, played by India Amarteifio.
As talented actress Ruth, 39, takes on the lead role, viewers have been keen to learn more about the actress’ life off-screen, especially as she recently appeared in BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are?
Huge family discovery
On Ruth’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, the genealogy team uncovered what turned out to be a huge family secret on her dad’s side.
The family discovered that Ruth’s grandmother, Beatrice, was adopted and no one else knew, including her father, Geoff, as his mother Beatrice never told him this fact.
Talking about the discovery on the show, Ruth said: “No one knew. My dad had no idea. So that was a huge shock. As far as, like, we’re concerned, we’re all just born, raised, died in Manchester.”
Meanwhile, while talking to her father, he responded over the bombshell: “When I got that phone call, I thought, ‘what’s going on?’ You could have knocked me down with a feather” to which Ruth replied: “Wow!”
Her dad continued: “I’m dead surprised that my grandma never said anything. That’s the only thing that I can’t get my head around.”
On the show, Ruth revealed that she and her family – her parents and sister Liz – are “really close, like, shockingly close”. The actress joked: “We are quite a stubborn, determined family, so it wouldn’t surprise me if we had traits of that here, there and everywhere.”
‘Epic’ wedding
Away from the TV sets and shows, Ruth is loved-up with her husband Joe Lawrence, whom she has known since they were five-years-old.
Unlike his wife Ruth, Joe doesn’t work in showbiz or the acting world. He is the owner of a company that trains people to operate cranes and for many years he was also a motorbike racer.
In 2024, after 12 years together, Ruth and Joe made things official and tied the knot. Talking about their wedding on Who Do You Think You Are?, Ruth revealed they had their wedding reception at fully accessible theatre, 53two in Manchester, which Ruth is a patron of.
Ruth said: “It is like my special place. I feel very at home here. And the best bit, so we had our wedding reception here and it was epic. It was so good.”
The actress previously said: “We were friends forever, we were always going to end up together, and obviously now he thinks that what I’m doing for a living is absolutely hysterical. He’s not an actor, he’s very grounded, it’s nice to be able to go home and not talk about it.”
The couple have two fur children – a cat and an adorable Bulldog, who both made an appearance of Who Do You Think You Are?
Acting career
Ruth, who has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair, underwent many spinal operations throughout her childhood. Opening up, Ruth said: “In my secondary school years, those teenage years were really, really hard, but it was never seen as a reason to not achieve or not be happy.
“I never grew up seeing anyone who looked like me on screen. I really didn’t. Oh, acting was a complete accident. I was doing some work experience at the BBC and a producer I met was casting something for, I think it was a children’s drama.
“Yeah, I landed my first role and it developed in a very wonderful way, thank goodness.”
The actress joked: “I absolutely love my job. I feel so privileged to say that I do what I do for a living. I mean, I would do it for free. Actually, don’t say that on camera!”
