Part gritty working-class drama, part glamorous true crime biopic, Sophie Turner stars in Joan – streaming on Neon from September 30. Its eye-catching costuming, compelling performances, and consistently banging soundtrack stole Amelia Berry’s attention.
What do you do for work? Something in a shop maybe. Or is it one of those computer jobs where you send emails all day? Cool! Yeah, no, cool, I’m sure that’s great for you but… don’t you ever wonder what it would be like to do something a little more… dangerous? A little more glamorous. A little more illegal maybe?
Well, far be it from us to advocate for a life of crime, but it sure makes for a juicy slice of TV drama in Joan—the new ITV true crime miniseries, screening now on Neon.
Starring Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner in the title role, Joan is an adaptation of Joan Hannington’s memoir I Am What I Am: The True Story of Britain’s Most Notorious Jewel Thief. A high-profile figure in Britain’s criminal underground in the 1980s, Hannington was known as ‘The Godmother’ and stole millions of dollars in diamonds across her eleven-year career.
Of course, our story doesn’t start there, and Joan kicks off with its anti-heroine in pretty desperate straits. It’s England in the early 1980s. Dreary, miserable, wind-swept, and awash with polyester and hair spray. Joan is a young mum working in a pub, stuck in an abusive relationship with Gary (Nick Blood from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D). Gary is a crim (of some kind)—he cheats, he threatens her, he disappears and comes back with sports cars… basically, he’s bad news.
Gary disappears after getting on the wrong side of some particularly unsavory characters, leaving Joan on the hook for whatever it is these gangsters are after. With no-one to turn to and nowhere to run, Joan is forced to put her daughter into foster care and try to find a new job—and a new life—in the big city. It’s a dire situation for Joan, but it leaves us with a woman with some solid goals: get success, get independence, get her daughter back.
A rich character with buckets of personality, Sophie Turner plays Joan with visible relish. “Joan had an obscene appetite for adventure and doing new things. I was drawn as well to the way she could compartmentalise her life between doing everything she could for her daughter, but then also committing these wild and exciting crimes,” says Turner in publicity materials for the show. “It’s the most exciting thing to be able to play a woman who has this unabashed confidence, and yet underneath so much pain and so much trauma. That gave me so much to work with. It’s a really special role.”
For an actress who grew up on screen, Joan is also an opportunity for Turner to show off her chops in mature and complex characterisation. And while the teary, serious moments do hit all the right notes, it’s the cheeky, funny, dangerous side of Joan where Turner really shines—making it impossible not to root for this determined, charming, gives-no-shits woman even as she makes some truly astonishingly bad decisions.
And of course, Joan is a real woman, who helped advise on the script of the show, met with Turner while preparing for the role, and attended the premiere (so I suppose we can assume Joan has a happy ending?). “It must be so intimidating for someone to have an actress who doesn’t know you who is just going to take over your story and present it to the world. You just hope that they present it in the right way,” Turner says about meeting the real Joan. “But the moment Joan walked in, she just burst into tears. We hadn’t even said anything. She just said, “It’s perfect.” … It was just a very, very emotional meeting.”
Our other main character is Boisie, played by Frank Dillane (Renegade Nell, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince). Boisie is an antiques expert, a recently released convicted criminal, and just absolutely head over heels for Joan.
“He’s introverted, intelligent and intimidating. But his principal characteristic is that he really loves Joan. That was the brief for this role,” the press kit quotes Dillane saying about the character. “He was not someone who was staying out late. His main focus was on being a good, dedicated husband. But also because he was older than Joan, he was trying to teach her the ropes.”
And while that may cover our leads, series writer and creator Anna Symon (The Essex Serpent, Mrs Wilson) and director Richard Laxton (BAFTA winner for sitcom Him & Her) have built a series that also celebrates another main character—the 1980s.
The shoulder pads are extravagant, the eyeshadow is dramatic, and the soundtrack swings from Culture Club to The Style Council to the dulcet tones of Julio Iglesias. But then just beyond the perms, bleach, and day-glo track-suits is the wood-veneer of it all—dull, beige, synthetic, and reeking of stale beer and cigarettes.
“When I read Joan’s book, which she wrote in 1991, it brought the 80s back to me so vividly in terms of the fashion and the music,” says Symon. “But it also reminded me of the casual sexism that underscored so many interactions that we women had with men at that time, whether it was being repeatedly referred to as “young lady”, or being wolf-whistled at… I think most women in the 1980s accepted this kind of behaviour. Joan is defiant and takes people on. I found that very inspiring and fun to write.”
Part gritty working-class drama, part glamorous true crime biopic, Joan’s eye-catching costuming, compelling performances, and consistently banging soundtrack make it the must-see drama of the minute. Plus Sophie Turner does multiple accents an episode and Club Tropicana is played almost in its entirety so… hard to say no to that, whatever your line of work.
