From 1914 to 1918, around 150 illegal nightclubs opened in Soho, and for the women at the time, London was their playground – whether they worked as chorus girls or were members of gangs shaping the city’s hedonistic nightlife scene.
According to the BBC, the series is inspired by “a forgotten time in history” – a period directly after the end of World War One, when men returned to Britain from the battlefields to find that the women they left behind had found a new sense of empowerment and power.
Based on the book, Dope Girls: The Birth of The British Drug Underground by Marek Kohn, the name alone suggests that the series will be a thrilling watch – which is bolstered by the fact that Shannon Murphy (Babyteeth, Killing Eve) and Polly Stenham (That Face) are behind the show.
Prostitution was also rife inside her clubs: the girls who worked there were called Meyrick’s Merry Maids, and in fact actor David Niven wrote in his 1971 autobiography that he lost his virginity at age 14 to one of them, called Nessie.
Then there’s bohemian dancer Billie Cassidy and Violet Davies – a member of London’s first wave of female police officers who is tasked with investigating the city’s dark, illegal nightlife scene.
