QUEEN of clubs

JULIANNE NICHOLSON on a period saga exploring the birth of the modern nightlife industry

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DOPE GIRLS
SATURDAY, 9.15 PM, BBC1 DRAMA

A s TV Times strolls along a bustling cobbled street, we pass colorful market stalls before walking through the door of an underground nightclub, where, in the aftermath of a shocking event, glass and furniture are strewn across the floor…

It’s January 2024, and we’ve been invited to the set of BBC1’s new period drama Dope Girls in Bridgend, South Wales, where an industrial estate has been transformed into Soho in 1918, as World War One ends.

The no-holds-barred six-parter centres on determined Kate Galloway (played by Julianne Nicholson), who, when her husband suddenly dies, is evicted from their countryside home. To provide for herself and her troubled teenage daughter Evie (Eilidh Fisher), cash-strapped Kate heads to Soho, London’s burgeoning entertainment district, to reconnect with her estranged eldest child, dancer Billie Cassidy (Umi Myers), who works in an illicit nightclub, where racy performances and after-hours drinking are the norm.