The BBC has revealed first-look pictures for Dope Girls, a major new six-part drama coming to BBC One and BBC iPlayer that brings the Soho streets of 1918 vividly to life.
Produced by Bad Wolf (His Dark Materials, Industry, I Hate Suzie, Doctor Who, A Discovery of Witches) in association with Sony Pictures Television, the drama is inspired by a forgotten time in history.
It is the end of World War One. As Britain celebrates the Armistice on the streets of London, men return from the front expecting to rejoin society and pick up where they left off - but a newly empowered generation of women are loath to simply return to the kitchen.
Using Soho’s expanding illicit underground clubland scene as their playground, women explore previously unimaginable opportunities on either side of the law.
Dope Girls depicts in visceral delicious detail the birth of the modern nightlife industry guided and gilded by hard fought female endeavour.
Created by multi-award-winning writer Polly Stenham (That Face, Julie, Neon Demon) and Alex Warren (Eleanor), with Shannon Murphy (Babyteeth, Killing Eve) as lead director and executive producer, Dope Girls features Julianne Nicholson (Mare of Easttown) as Kate Galloway, a single mother who establishes a nightclub amidst the hedonistic uproar of post-World War One London, embracing a life of criminal activities with the dedicated aim of providing for her daughter Evie, played by Eilidh Fisher (The Power).
Eliza Scanlen (Little Women) plays Violet Davies, one of the first wave of female officers, who is assigned to go undercover and investigate the illicit world of underground Soho nightclubs. This is where we find Billie Cassidy played by Umi Myers (Bob Marley: One Love), a dazzling bohemian dancer, whose life is irrevocably changed by Kate’s arrival.
Also starring in the series, which recently finished filming in Wales, are Michael Duke (Get Up Stand Up), Ian Bonar (I May Destroy You), Dustin Demri-Burns (Slow Horses), Geraldine James (Silo), Nabhaan Rizwan (Informer), Priya Kansara (Polite Society), Jordan Kouamé (Malpractice), Will Keen (His Dark Materials) and Sebastian Croft (Heartstopper).
As well as serving as lead writers, Stenham and Warren will act as executive producers alongside Bad Wolf’s Kate Crowther and Jane Tranter, director Shannon Murphy, Michael Lesslie for Storyteller Productions, writer Matthew Barry and Rebecca Ferguson for the BBC.
Miranda Bowen (Women In Love) has directed later episodes. Directors of Photography include Annika Summerson and Carlos Catalan, while Sherree Philips (Babyteeth) is production designer. Ado Yoshizaki Cassuto serves as producer. Casting is by Julie Harkin and Nathan Toth.
The project has been developed and overseen by Bad Wolf’s Director of Content, Dan McCulloch and Chief Creative Officer, Ryan Rasmussen.
Dope Girls was commissioned by Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama. Bad Wolf is a Sony Pictures Television-owned company, and SPT will handle international distribution.
Produced with the support of Welsh Government via Creative Wales.
GK