Dope Girls

[themaskedcat]

Starts tonight on BBC One, all episodes on iplayer.

Anyone watching?

Saw episode one. Seemed more style over substance. The sudden criminality of the mum seemed inexplicable. But I’ll persevere. What did you think?

Were there really loads of eggs and butter available then and spaghetti?

I know I've missed the whole point of the episode 😂

I really wanted to like this but it’s just getting more and more ridiculous, like Peaky Blinders meets Gangs of London.

It.is.very.strange.

I will catch up tomorrow. I read Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson and this sounds very similar.

I gave up, all fur coat and no knickers .

I liked it! I enjoyed The Great and Alienist, which it reminded me of. Also Gentleman Jack.

I'm not averse to bringing modern behaviour to period pieces - because I think history repeats itself. It was a time when women had got out of their box and were refusing to sink back in.

The music they used avoids the potential for twee and gives a sense of how hedonistic and abandoned the twenties were about to become.

And the ugly behaviour of the police - well, what the suffragettes went through is also well documented, including the way female officials behaved. The advent of the first female police officers is an interesting subplot.

I'll keep watching.

Few hours of my life I won't get back again, kept watching in the hope it got better, it didn't.

Gave up very early on. I had no idea what was happening.

I loved that book and thought Dope Girls might be a dramatisation but sadly not by the sounds of it.

I really wanted to like this. Shame.

I think the only way that I can continue to watch it is to imagine it's in an alternate reality. It's a shame because I really rate Eliza Scanlen and have always liked Geraldine James.

I’ve watched the first 3 episodes - and absolutely love the production. The opening credits, the graphics, the cast, the set, costumes, sound world, cinematography - all stellar.

But it’s all too much. They won’t let the characters breathe. And they didn’t give us enough time with them at the start to establish characters we might care about.

So I’m watching it for the visual and aural thrill - while feeling, at this point, somewhat indifferent to the plot. Though I agree that a non-traditional interrogation of women’s roles at that time in British history is full of potential.

I've watched the first 3 and agree with @MayIDestroyYou - your post nails it!

Anyone who wanted to like this bit couldn't, you must try A Thousand Blows on Disney. I don't think there's a thread here yet on that one. The character development is superior and I would actually say it's really really good! Set at an earlier time point, but with a similar feel and done properly.

BTW at the beginning of each episode of Dope Girls there's a caption saying that this drama is about a largely forgotten time in history (I'm paraphrasing).... however I would beg to differ there! There's lots of stuff about post WW1 and I don't just mean the 20's, I mean very late teens. I don't think of it as a forgotten time at all.

I'm on episode 2 and enjoying it. It's very stylised and unrealistic but I don't mind that.

What a load of pathetic juvenile rubbish.

I am quite prepared to believe that post WWI, women found times really hard.

And it could have been really interesting without being tedious and sombre.

But this is just smutty school boy leap frogging on the issue so as to be a bit raunchy.

Its so bad it would have been embarrasing even if it had been scheduled for BBC 3.

When people make shows just to compete with other people in the tv industry, they show that they aren't interested in making shows for audiences.

Also agree with PP, there is lots of information about women post WWI, partly because like it not the number of women who were left widowed or forever a "spinster" created a huge shift if women's lives.

Singled Out by Virginia Nicholson is a brilliant account of women’s lives after WWI, telling the story of the women who were left unexpectedly single and had to make a whole new way of life for themselves. I agree that it’s not a “forgotten part of history” at all, unless it’s meant to refer specifically to the underground club/drug scene which perhaps we think of as a more modern thing.

But the problem is tv series makers would think this dull and worthy.

Showing women becoming independent through necessity.

Far more "exciting" to show a very small minority who had to exhibit their bodies to earn a living.

Like so much tv nowadays it seemed to be made by immature school boys.

Discussion on now - from say 8.46am on Radio 4 about the post Great War underground club world of Dope Girls.

Will be available on BBC Sounds.

Try too hard edgy bollocks, probably created with the assistance of a fuckton of cocaine.

I'm sort of watching it. Think it's a bit like the US TV series good girls. Where normally 'middleclass women' end up turning to a life of crime with loads of excitement but very little cash being made.

Having now read a few accounts of the life of the woman this series is based on it sounds much more interesting and complex than this mash up of her running a night club in 1919 with current trends in London.

As usual some silly man cant actual accept that the story of how a woman with 8 children, found a way to keep herself an them from poverty could be interesting!

https://www.tatler.com/article/queen-of-nightclubs-kate-meyrick-and-the-43-club

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20s-people/the-43/the-43-club-in-pictures/

Both links are from a few years ago so also shows this tv series hdid not "uncover" the history.

Is Billie supposed to be Kates daughter

@IwantToRetire that looks interesting. Will take a look when i have more time

Yes she's her daughter, but she gave her up to an orphanage as a baby.

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson is also based in this era.