'Dope Girls' star Julianne Nicholson on the brilliant 'punk rock' scene that sets the tone for post-World War One London show

Yahoo

25-02-2025

Created and written by the esteemed Polly Stenham, produced by Bad Wolf (Doctor Who) and Sony Pictures Television, Dope Girls tells a story of post-World War One London, focusing on the stories of women often left out of what we hear, and see, from that time. Starring Julianne Nicholson, Eliza Scanlen, Umi Myers and Eilidh Fisher, the six-episode series is centred around Kate Galloway (Nicholson), a recently widowed mother who leans into the boom of nightlife to establish her own nightclub.
Meanwhile, Scanlen's character, Violet Davies, is one of the London Constabulary's first ever female officers, assignment to go undercover to investigate the city's underworld. This includes getting a job as a hostess at Kate's club.
Speaking to Yahoo Canada, Nicholson and Scanlen spoke about portraying women making their mark on post-war, and a particularly "punk rock" scene in the fountain in Trafalgar Square that's a great way to establish the tone for the rest of the season.
In Canada, Dope Girls air Mondays on CTV Drama Channel, CTV.ca, and the CTV app, and is available to stream on Crave the next day.
There's something um that I think comes through, I think right from the beginning is so core, which is that we're getting to see women.
In traditionally male spaces in a traditionally male centered timeline and time frame in history, um, was there something particularly attractive about being able to take on a story that is going to show people, I think, a different side of this time period than we're used to seeing?
Yeah, it was a huge draw to sort of show the women's side of the story.
You know, the men are coming back and oftentimes we think of that as being purely, you know, love and reunion, but You know, women have found themselves out of their homes, in the workforce, independent, and now they're all, you know, for the most part going back into the kitchen, into the home caretaking mode.
And that sucks.
Um, and so it's fun to be able to sort of, um, play in that world and, and show this other version of, of what might have been happening at the time.
Violet's such a fun character to play, um, being part of the police force, and during the war, because there were no men.
Um, women did volunteer at the police force and then it was until when the war ended that they were brought out brought on as a kind of experiment and um.
Yeah, it was I I think it was a just a very interesting world for me to explore, interesting to think about women, um, in that space and how.
They used their femininity as a way to enter spaces that men Um, couldn't necessarily do, uh, so expertly in plain clothes.
Julianne, I have to ask about that really kind of brilliant scene, um, in the fountain in Fowler Square, because I think it's such a beautiful moment.
I loved that volume stage stuff, that's what they call volume stage, I was reminded today, and it's basically like a great big IMAX screen.
I mean, it's like 40 ft tall and wraps around the whole room.
And it really just brought a different level of energy to everything.
I mean, it felt really special to be able to recreate.
I mean, just using your imagination, thinking back to that time, that place, what it must have felt like on the day.
So to be able to have these incredible sort of background supporting artists, having these full on stories around us.
Um, it just felt very alive and very moving and very punk rock in a way that I feel like you feel throughout the rest of the series.
It felt like a great and sort of Um, exciting and abrupt way to to jump into that part of our storytelling.
I loved it.
I mean, come on, with wings drenched in blood, like it was all, it all came together for me.
It was very exciting and just like visually, it was so cool.
Yeah.
I also even like you like walking out of that scene with, you know, Billy and your daughter, I think is also such an interesting moment and just how they carried themselves after.
I was like, oh, this whole moment is phenomenal.
I know, I, I love that too, where they just feel like.
I, it just feels so raw.
I feel like so much of this of this show just feels like people who who don't have the energy to put on an act anymore.
It's about survival and so it just gets rough immediately and sort of carries through throughout.
Even, even for the good girl in the in the uniform, exactly.
Um, as you, I think for your character, something that's really interesting, and I was really kind of interested in figuring out and finding the, the hooks was, um, this kind of, um, clear trauma relationship she has to what happened with her sister, which I think is an interesting kind of element to add.
She's someone who You know, feels this desperation to kind of serve in the way that she wants to, but she has this kind of other element that in some ways, um, her superiors kind of use against her in some ways, in some capacities in some moments.
And what was it like to have that really interesting kind of element of of her past to be able to kind of use to inform some of the character?
Yeah, I think that, I mean, Violet, for Violet, her sister was her whole world and so I think a lot of what she does in the show informed, is informed by, Her loss and um.
As much as she tries to convince herself that it's her duty to serve her country.
I think also, I'm sure that women at the time too, didn't feel like they had the same opportunities to kind of like serve their country too.
She feels a, she feels a certain patriotism for her country.
Um, but I think under the guise of that is uh.
Uh, regret and, um, self blame for what happened to her sister.
Um, so it's, yeah, it is the driving force for her and.
Yeah, it's a story of survival too.
She's, she's a lone wolf.
Julian, for you, um, your character and Billy's relationship is obviously very interesting to see how that develops and this need for Kate to kind of come back and say, You know, kind of like I need to stay here.
I need your help.
It's like, this is the only place she has to go and to see that interesting relationship and Billy kind of explore this mother that left and she lost contact with.
Can you tell me a little bit about really being able to kind of dive into that kind of interesting element of the character?
Yeah, one of the things I love about the show is how it dives into the diversity of Soho in that time and, you know, different.
You know, different walks of life, different ages, different sexual preferences, different color of skin.
Like that was a very beautiful world to explore.
And um Umi, who plays Billy is such a talent and so strong and vulnerable at the same time.
And it's a very, you know, we don't explore necessarily the whole of their story on camera, but we had a very clear, I had a very clear idea of of leaving her.
Kate always thought she would come back for her, be able to come back for her, and her life circumstances changed, and she wasn't able to, and now it's all these years later, but it's been her big regret.
She thinks about her in my mind every single day.
And so it's, it's the final straw that pushes her back to.
Her, but it's very complicated.
I know Umi has shared that in Billy's mind, one of the reasons I left her was because she was not white, which is very hard to hear and feels, you know, abandoned as she was.
So it was a very rich history that they share, um, and I found it very moving to play those scenes with Ui and explore the potential of finding their way back to each other.