A punchy modern soundtrack. Regular use of irreverent on-screen subtitles. An attitude and setting that reflects the surprising wildness of our recent past. It’s striking how influential the preoccupations and stylistic tics of Steven Knight have become but his ever-expanding canon of rough diamonds touting ugly talents and riddling street corner poetics casts a long shadow over Dope Girls, a drama that, with a slightly reductive inevitability, has been trailed in certain quarters as a spiritual sister to his global hit Peaky Blinders.
Set in 1918 London, this series is loosely based on Marek Kohn’s book Dope Girls: The Birth of the British Drug Underground. The year is significant – the First World War had unforeseen consequences on the home front, persuading thousands of women that there wasn’t much point in simply waiting for their menfolk to return and take control. They themselves had agency, having been forced to demonstrate it over the previous half-decade, and they were capable of moulding their own futures.
