Julianne Nicholson and Eliza Scanlen to Lead BBC Drama 'Dope Girls'

The BBC's upcoming six-part series Dope Girls seems as though it's about to put a thoroughly feminist spin on the concept of the period crime drama. 

Created and written by Polly Stenham (The Neon Demon) and Alex Warren (Eleanor), the series is described as something of a spiritual successor to Peaky Blinders, the popular Manchester-set gangster family drama that ran for six seasons and made a star out of Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer). Inspired by Marek Kohn’s non-fiction book Dope Girls: The Birth of the British Drug Underground, the drama is set in early 20th century London, when the streets of Soho were home to female gangs running the clubs, drugs, and moonshine. 

“We can’t wait for viewers to discover the bold and brilliant Dope Girls," Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama, says:  Packed full of complex and electrifying characters from a fascinating time in Britain’s history, this will be must-see, ambitious drama.” 

The series stars Julianne Nicholson (Mare of Easttown) as Kate Galloway, a single mother who opens a nightclub in post-World War I London, turning to a criminal lifestyle in the hopes of providing for her daughter Evie. Opposite her, Eliza Scanlen (Little Women) plays Violet Davies, a member of the first wave of female officers to join the Metropolitan Police, who is given the assignment of going undercover in order to investigate Soho's illicit underground scene. It appears evident that these two women are on a collision course with each other, and the only question will be how they manage to cross into each other's lives.

The Dope Girls ensemble also features Umi Myers (Bob Marley: One Love) as Billie Cassidy, a dazzling bohemian dancer whose life is turned upside down by Kate's arrival in Soho, and Geraldine James (Silo) as Isabella, the leader of the criminal Salucci crime family, which also includes Rory Fleck Byrne (This is Going to Hurt) as Luca Salucci, Dustin Demri-Burns (Slow Horses) as Damasco Salucci, Eben Figueiredo (The Serial Killer's Wife) as Matteo Rossi Salucci and Sebastian Croft (Heartstopper) as Silvio Salucci. 

Other notable cast members include Michael Duke (Get Up Stand Up) as Eddie Cobb, Ian Bonar (I May Destroy You) as Sgt. Frank Turner, Laura Checkley (Detectorists) as Sarah Fisher, Will Keen (His Dark Materials) as Frederick Asquith-Gore, Fiona Button (The Split) as Sophie Asquith-Gore, Harry Cadby (Everything Now) as Jimmy Conville, Nabhaan Rizwan (Station Eleven) as Silas Huxley, Priya Kansara (Polite Society) as Lily Lee and Jordan Kouame (Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light) as Reggie Regbo. 

Production is currently underway with Shannon Murphy (Killing Eve) as lead director, and Miranda Bowen (Women in Love) also directing episodes. Stenham and Warren will also serve as executive producers alongside Kate Crowther and Jane Tranter from Bad Wolf, Michael Lesslie for Storyteller Productions, and Rebecca Ferguson for the BBC. Matthew Barry, who is also an EP, is an additional writer alongside Xiao Tang (You Killed My Robot) and Matthew Jacobs Morgan (The Rig).

Dope Girls will premiere on the BBC in 2024. It does not yet have an American distributor, but if those Peaky Blinders comparisons are legit, it probably won't have to wait very long to find one.