Soho’s secret nightlife in the wake of the First World War is exposed in all its glory, glamour and gore in new series Dope Girls.
The BBC One show premiers this weekend with a female-led cast raising the curtain on the illicit underground clubland in the capital which flourished when the men returned from war.
Produced by Bad Wolf in association with Sony Pictures Television, it was created Polly Stenham and Alex Warren and directed by Shannon Murphy.
Jane Tranter, Executive Producer and Bad Wolf CEO, said: “One of the main themes of Dope Girls is what it was like for women in 1918 London and how women can find their voice.
“In the first episode alone we see our four main characters being metaphorically or literally silenced by the men and the culture around them and one of the things that happens over the six episodes of Dope Girls is we see the women’s fight to find their voices and be heard.”
It is the end of the First World War and 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 there is a newly empowered generation of women who are loath to return to the kitchen after a taste of the world outside the home.
Soho’s expanding illicit underground nightclub scene provides the perfect playground for these women to explore previously unimaginable opportunities on either side of the law.
Julianne Nicholson is Kate Galloway, a single mother who establishes a nightclub amidst the hedonistic uproar of post-war London, embracing a life of criminal activities with the aim of providing for her daughter Evie, played by Eilidh Fisher.
Eliza Scanlen plays Violet Davies, one of the first wave of female police officers, assigned to go undercover and investigate the illicit world of underground Soho nightclubs.
And this is where we find Billie Cassidy, played by Umi Myers, a dazzling bohemian dancer, whose life is irrevocably changed by Kate’s arrival.
Also operating in this underworld is the Salucci family, led by the matriarch Isabella who left Sicily 40 years ago and runs organised crime in London.
These women who are at the forefront of the birth of the modern nightlife industry but the glamour and liberation are not without pain and trauma.
Julianne Nicholson stars as Kate Galloway, a widowed mother-of-two who moves back to London and runs a nightclub to provide for her family.
Nicholson said of her character: “She finds herself with nothing and, with a daughter to support, she returns to London where she has an estranged daughter who is a dancer in a club.
“It’s the only place she has to turn to start again.”
The American actress, 53, won an Emmy for her role as Lori Ross in Mare of Easttown. She has also starred in Ally McBeal, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Boardwalk Empire, Masters of Sex and Paradise.
On film, she has appeared in August: Osage County, Kinsey and Blonde.
Eliza Scanlen plays Violet Davies, a young woman from northern England who has come to London to interview for the Met Police.
Speaking about her role, Scanlen said: “When she gets into the police force, she goes undercover as a sex worker to try and get women off the streets, and things start to go a bit pear shaped when she finds herself identifying with the unconventional family of women she has gotten to know.”
The Australian actress, 26, started her career in the soap opera Home and Away playing Tabitha Ford.
She has gone on to appear in films such as Little Women and The Starling Girl and on television in Sharp Objects and The First Lady.
Umi Myers takes on the role of Billie Cassidy, a dancer at the nightclub.
Myers said her character is “an artist” and “her artistic expression is dance”.
“She creates these bold and magnificent, beautiful and kind of ugly pieces that are very different and very provoking”, she said, “She is a pioneer in this world.”
Myers starred as Cindy Breakspeare in the musical biopic Bob Marley: One Love and has appeared in Silent Witness.
Eilidh Fisher plays Evie Galloway, the teenage daughter of Kate Galloway.
Fisher said: “We first meet Evie at a very elite boarding school and she is taking out some rage on her school bullies.
“Everything changes for Evie at the start of this show.
“She loses her father, and she is moved to London by her mother and left alone in a stranger’s flat with a lot of grief.”
The Scottish-born actress has appeared in Call the Midwife, The English Game, The Power and the 2024 film The Outrun.
The cast of Dope Girls also includes:
Dope Girls is one of several collaborations between Bad Wolf Studios and the BBC, which include Doctor Who, His Dark Materials and Industry.
Much of the filming for this series took place in the Bad Wolf Studios in Wales.
Soho-inspired streets were built at a site in Bridgend, Wales.
Brangwyn Hall, part of Swansea Guildhall, was used for some of the interior shots.
And filming was also done on location in London, with iconic parts of the city forming part of the backdrop to the action.
Julianne Nicholson said: “The biggest scenes were the scenes that we filmed in Trafalgar Square in the fountain …to be sitting in the fountain in Trafalgar Square in 1918 surrounded by people who are celebrating the end of the war in a really debaucherous way – it was a very surreal and exciting moment that I had never pictured for myself.”
Dope Girls starts on BBC One on Saturday 22 February at 9.15pm.
There are six episodes in the series, with the remaining five to be aired on successive Saturday evenings.
The entire series will also be available to stream on the BBC iPlayer.
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