Inside BBC's gritty new drug drama dubbed 'the all-female Peaky Blinders' based on scandalous true story | The Sun

THE BBC's new drug drama has been dubbed 'the all-female Peaky Blinders' – and is based on a scandalous true story.

The new six-part series – called Dope Girls – follows the birth of the nightclub scene in Soho and is partly based on the true story of a conservative, god-fearing 42-year old single mother, Kate Meyrick.

In 1920s London, Kate builds a nightclub empire and criminal family enterprise, becoming the most dangerous woman in London as well as a competitor to Brilliant Chang, the baron of Soho’s gritty underworld.

Fueled by drugs and alcohol, Meyrick’s criminal empire allows a new kind of hedonism to flourish after the war, as a generation desperately tries to dance away the trauma and the bloodshed.

Under the cover of darkness, her clubs carve a slice through every strata of society, ripping through the rigid patriarchal structure and allowing women to dance, have sex, and do drugs with whomever they please, regardless of background or race.

Deadline was the first to reveal the news earlier today, while The Irish Times previously delved into Kate's life, revealing how she was an orphan by the time she was eight and was brought up by her grandmother.

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She attended Alexandra College in Dublin and aged 19, she married Ferdinand Merrick, a physician and specialist in nerve diseases.

The couple changed their name to Meyrick and moved to England, and while Kate started out as the dutiful doctor's wife, by the end of the first World War, her marriage had collapsed.

Kate – a mother-of-six by this point – moved to London and "soon became involved in the hectic and louche demi-monde that was emerging as a reaction to the recent war."

She became managed and part-owner of Dalton's Club in Leicester Square, where young women offered "sympathy and sex" for a couple of pound to the men returning from the battlefield.

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After that was shut down, she opened her own place – the 43 – and it became a fashionable jazz night club.

Despite initially being a respectable establishment, Kate soon started to ignore the licensing laws and she ended up serving six months in prison for selling alcohol without a licence.

Her clubs were full of famous faces, and Kate's notoriety meant she became a celebrity in her own right.

But her downfall came when her dealings with police sergeant George Goddard came to light, and how she had been paying him £100 a week not to raid her clubs.

She was sentenced to 15 months hard labour for bribery and corruption, and her time in prison took a toll on her health and she died in 1933 aged 57 from bronchopneumonia.

Deadline reports filming is set to begin later this year, with casting revealed in due course.

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