Geraldine James has lauded her co-stars and the crew behind brand new BBC series Dope Girls ahead of its premiere on Saturday evening.
Set against the backdrop of post-World War One London, Dope Girls is a six-part drama that explores a new wave of female empowerment taking over the capital.
With the men who’d fought in the war back home, the drama depicts how the status quo came under threat with women no longer wanting to retreat to their stereotypical societal roles pre-war.
According to the BBC, the series show “the birth of the modern nightlife industry guided and gilded by hard fought female endeavour”.
At the forefront is Isabella Salucci, the matriach of an organised crime family and played by none other than James.
But the Downton Abbey and Sherlock Holmes star is surrounded by a talented cast including Julianne Nicholson, Eilidh Fisher, Eliza Scanlen, Umi Myers, Michael Duke, Ian Bonar, Dustin Demri-Burns, Nabhaan Rizwan, Priya Kansara, Jordan Kouamé, Will Keen and Sebastian Croft.
Geraldine James has opened up about her new role in Dope Girls
PA
Paying tribute to her fellow Dope Girls cast and crew mates, James said: “My great joy behind the scenes is the relationship, the family we’ve built up.
“Starting with doing strange physical exercises in a rehearsal room with two grown men and a younger man, who I’ve never met before.
“We were suddenly being constellations and seeing how we moved and touched each other. It was quite a deep end but the payback for that is phenomenal.
“We all talk to each other a lot and we improvise and go through it all. It’s the way I like to work and it’s absolutely fabulous.”
Speaking to the BBC ahead of Saturday’s premiere, James also delved into what fans can expect from Isabella and the role she played in the new wave of female empowerment within post-WWI society.
“I play Isabella Salucci who is of Sicilian origin, has two sons and a grandson and quite a big family in London after the war,” she began.
“Her sons have followed her into the business of organised crime. She’s lived here for over 40 years, she had to leave Sicily in rather unfortunate circumstances.
“She’s a leader but she’s a quiet controller, so she’s sort of in the background.”
Sharing insight into how she got herself into Isabella’s mindset, James continued: “My first image, when I was thinking of creating her, was she’s a sort of spider in the middle of the web in the dark corner of the ceiling.
“She’s always there absolutely knowing what’s going on and controlling it but not by coming in and bashing around but by throwing fairly lethal darts at people.
Geraldine James stars in BBC series Dope Girls
BBC
“It’s a fantastic character to play, she’s wonderful.”
Elsewhere, director Shannon Murphy opened up on her thoughts on the core topics Dope Girls explores and that fans can expect.
“The tone of Dope Girls is very much from the voice of Polly Stenham and Alex Warren who wrote the scripts,” she said.
“They have a really punk energy and subversive tone to their humour and the situations that they put their characters in.
“I would say the tone is very much in honour of that. I love things that are both very dramatic and funny at the same time so it’s that kind of mesh of tones.”
