Dope Girls never quite puts it all out there; never quite sings.
This theme is the key to Dope Girls and unites the Galloways with Violet Davies (Eliza Scanlen), the ruthless but vulnerable undercover cop whose path they eventually cross.
But he’s also in hock to the Saluccis, an Italian crime family whose male members feel straight out of central casting but who are redeemed by the presence of matriarch Isabella (Geraldine James) bringing a certain vintage class to these grubby proceedings.
Possibly, this imperative slightly clashes with the demands of primetime BBC One but there’s a sense that Dope Girls slightly pulls its punches.
Conniving cop Sgt Frank Turner (Ian Bonar), for instance, visibly withers before our eyes as the series progresses – his bullying misogyny is eventually no match for Violet’s clarity of purpose.
