What was the real story behind the BBC series Dope Girls?

In this episode of Oh What a Lovely Podcast, we dive into the world of Soho's underground nightlife in the 1920s, as seen in the BBC's new drama Dope Girls. The series takes inspiration from Marek Kohn's book Dope Girls: The Birth of the British Drug Underground and brings to life the turbulent years after the First World War, when jazz clubs, crime, and vice flourished in London.

Joining us to separate fact from fiction is Professor Matthew Houlbrook, a leading historian of 20th-century Britain. We explore the real figures and stories behind Dope Girls, the shifting social landscape of post-war Britain, and how the show reflects the era's struggles with gender, crime, and morality.

References: Marek Kohn, Dope Girls: The Birth Of The British Drug Underground Kate Atkinson, Shrines of Gaiety Matt Houlbrook, Queer London: Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis, 1918-1957 Downton Abbey Robert Graves & Alan Hodge, The Long Weekend: A Social History of Great Britain 1918-1939 Sarah Waters, The Paying Guests

What happens when a late-twentieth-century detective novelist develops strong opinions about the First World War?

This month Angus, Jessica and Chris discuss Reginald Hill's The Wood Beyond (1995) and the short story 'Silent Night' from the collection A Candle for Christmas (2023). Along the way, we consider the significance of the genealogy boom to the historiography of the war, the politics of the Shot at Dawn campaign and the tradition of novelists inventing fictional regiments. References: Midsummer Murders The Sweeney Who Do You Think You Are? Not Forgotten (2005-2009) Pat Barker, Regeneration (1991) Sebastian Japrisot, A Very Long Engagement (1994) Sebastian Faulks, Birdsong (1993) Blackadder Goes Forth (1983) The Monocled Mutineer (1986) Alan Clark, The Donkeys (1961) Reginald Hill, Arms and the Women (1999) ________. On Beulah Height (1998) ________. Recalled to Life (1992) ________. Exit Lines (1984) Helen McCartney, Citizen Soldiers: The Liverpool Territorials in the First World War (2005) Peter Simkins, Kitchener's Army: The Raising of the New Armies, 1914-1916 (2007) Arthur Marwick, The Deluge: British Society and the First World War (1965) Susan Grayzel, Women's Identities at War (1999) Tammy Proctor, Female Intelligence: Women and Espionage in the First World War (2003) Alison Fell, Women as Veterans in Britain and France after the First World War (2018) Oh! What a lovely podcast, Black Hand Gang Oh! What a lovely podcast, The Warm Hands of Ghosts

What happens when you combine the First World War with a 1970s cult sci-fi classic? This month we watched 'Assignment 2' from the television series Sapphire & Steel which features a ghostly First World War soldier haunting an abandoned railway station. Along the way we discuss differing approaches to sacrifice, the idea of an 'unjust' death, and where the show sits on our ongoing 'creepy' list.

What do you do when a student brings you a collection of family papers in a Harrods tin?

This month, Chris, Angus and Jessica speak to Professor Ian Isherwood about his new book, The Battalion: Citizen Soldiers at War on the Western Front. Along the way, we discuss developing digital humanities projects, the involvement of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis in rambling and the proliferation of bad war poetry.

References: Ian Isherwood, The Battalion: Citizen Soldiers at War on the Western Front Ian Isherwood, The First World War Letters of H.J.C. Peirs Michael Roper, Afterlives of War: A Descendant's History

How do you walk people through First World War landscapes? This month we welcome back Prof Mark Connelly to discuss his new walking tours endeavour Connelly Contours. Along the way we discuss war memorials in the London landscape, the evolution of remembrance, and if bad weather provides important context.

How do you teach the FIrst World War?

This month we're joined by Dr Ann-Marie Einhaus and Prof Catriona Pennell to reflect on their 'First World War in the Classroom' project that explored the ways the conflict was taught in schools. Along the way we discuss the role of battlefield tours, the time constraints faced by teachers, and whether the centenary has changed the way the war is taught'

References:The First World War in the Classroom: Teaching and the Construction of Cultural Memory

Can you turn the First World War into sketch comedy?

This month we talk to the public historian, podcaster, and author Greg Jenner. Along the way we discuss his work on the Horrible Histories television show, the difficulties of being funny about twentieth-century history, the different ways in which the public now consume history, and why Jessica might be considering changing career to become a comedian.

References:Horrible Histories (2008-Present) You're Dead to Me (2020-Present)

What happens when the First World War meets pulp science fiction? This month we read the novel: Black Hand Gang (the first in the No Man's World trilogy) by Pat Kelleher. The book depicts a fictional battalion of British soldiers who are transported from the Somme to a strange alien world. As a result we discuss supernatural horror and the war, the use of slang, and whether this book was written explicitly for Chris. References: Pat Kelleher, Black Hand Gang (No Man's Word Book 1) (2011) Daniel Dafoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719) Dennis Wheatley, The Devil Rides Out (1934) Pat Barker, Regeneration (1991) Neil Gaiman, The Sandman (1989 - present) Juno Dawson, Her Majesty's Royal Coven (2022) Reginal Hill, The Wood Beyond (1995) Blackadder Goes Forth, BBC TV (1989) Pat Mills, Charley's War (1979-1986) Brian Lumbley HG Wells HP Lovecraft

What happens when fantasy meets the First World War? This month, we read 'The Warm Hands of Ghosts' by Katherine Arden, a novel which follows Canadian nurse Laura Iven as she searches for her brother behind the lines in the militarised area known as the 'Forbidden Zone'. The plot hinges around a mysterious character called Faland, who runs an elusive hotel with no set location that men find to drink and relax In the discussion, we consider the fictional use of historical characters, whether the war began in 1917, and Chris' new scale for measuring war-related novels.

Links:

Neil Gaiman, The Sandman (1989-present) Alice Winn, In Memoriam (2023) Robert Graves, Good-bye To All That (1929) Mary Borden, The Forbidden Zone (1929) L. M. Montgomery, Rilla of Ingleside (1921) The Battle of the Somme (1916) R. H. Mottram, The Spanish Farm Trilogy (1930) Lesley Glaister, Blasted Things (2020) Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory (1975) Owen Davies, A Supernatural War (2018) Lucifer (2016-2021) Pierre Purseigle, Mobilisation, Sacrifice et Citoyenneté. Des communautés locales face à la guerre moderne. Angleterre – France, 1900-1918 (2013) Women at War (2022) Rachel Duffett, The Stomach for Fighting (2012) Kate Macdonald, The first cyborg and First World War bodies as anti-war propaganda (2016) Kim Newman, The Bloody Red Baron (1995) Pat Kelleher, Black Hand Gang (2010) Nicci French

This month Angus, Chris and Jessica discuss Jessica's professorial inaugural lecture, 'No (Wo)man's Land: writing history at the intersection of gender and First World War studies'. Along the way we consider the problem of masculinity as an empty analytic category, the importance of the centenary for the study of the First World War and what Jessica might have done if she hadn't gone in to academia. There is also a sneak preview of exciting forthcoming and future projects from all three of us. References: Jessica Meyer, 'On Being a Woman and a War Historian' Jessica Meyer, Men of War: Masculinity and the First World War in Britain (2008) Jessica Meyer, Equal Burden: The Men of the Royal Army Medical Corps in the First World War (2019) Kate Adie, Fighting on the Home Front: The Legacy of Women in World War One (2013) Kate Adie, 'Don't write first world war women out of history', The Guardian, 23rd September, 2013 Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August (1962) Deborah Thom, Nice Girls and Rude Girls: Women Workers in World War 1 (1998) Tammy Proctor, Female Intelligence: Women and Espionage in the First World War (2003) Margaret MacMillan, Peacemakers (2001) Adrian Gregory, The Last Great War (2008) Jeremy Paxman, Great Britain's Great War (2013) John Tosh and Michael Roper (eds), Manful Assertions: Masculinities in Britain Since 1800 (1991) Denise Riley, Am I That Name?: Feminism and the Category of 'Women' (1988) R.W. Connell, Masculinities (1993) Joan W. Scott, 'Rewriting History' in Margaret R. Higonnet, et. al. (eds), Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars (2008) Branden Little (ed), Humanitarianism in the Era of the First World War, special issue ofFirst World War Studies, vol.5, no.1 (2014) Heather Perry, Recycling the Disabled: Army, Medicine, and Modernity in World War I Germany (2014) Michele Moyd, Violent Intermediaries: African Soldiers, Conquest, and Everyday Colonialism in German East Africa (2014) Susan Grayzel, Women and the First World War (2002) Alexander Mayhew, Making Sense of the Great War: Crisis, Englishness and Morale on the Western Front (2024) Alice Winn, In Memoriam (2023), https://ohwhatalovelypodcast.co.uk/podcast/in-memoriam/ Sam Mendes, 1917 (2019), https://ohwhatalovelypodcast.co.uk/podcast/sam-mendes-1917-and-the-landscape/ Peter Mandler, 'The Problem with Cultural History', Cultural and Social History, vol.1, no.1 (2004), 94-117. Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory (1975) Robert Graves, Good-bye to All That (1929) Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) Rosa Maria Bracco, Merchants of Hope: British Middlebrow Writers and the First World War (1993) Pat Barker, Regeneration (1991) Sebastian Faulks, Birdsong (1993) Alison Light, Forever England: Femininity, Literature, and Conservatism Between the Wars (1991) Jessica Meyer, Chris Kempshall and Markus Pöhlman, 'Life and Death of Soldiers', 1914-18 Online, 7th February, 2022 Chris Kempshall, The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire (2024) Katherine Arden, The Warm Hands of Ghosts (2024)