Sophie Turner trades Game of Thrones gowns for shoulder pads in Joan

JOAN ★★★★
Stan

This six-part British series stars Game of Thrones′ Sophie Turner in a very different style of costume drama, but her outfits are no less dramatic. Turner stars as Joan Hannington, a housewife turned jewel thief who became one of London’s most notorious underworld figures in the 1980s – and surely one of the most stylish. Gird yourself for brightly hued power dressing, crease-cut eyeshadow and extreme blusher.

Best of all, Joan is based on a true story. Written by Anna Symon (The Essex Serpent) and directed by Rain Dogs′ Richard Laxton, the series is based on the real Joan Hannington’s 2002 memoir, I Am. What I Am, and she worked closely with Symon on the script.

The series opens with Joan, who, in her 20s, is stuck in an abusive marriage to violent criminal Gary. When a job goes wrong and Gary goes on the run, Joan sees an out for herself and her six-year-old daughter, Kelly, and legs it herself. But jobless, broke and homeless, she leaves Kelly in foster care, planning to collect her as soon as she’s on her feet. She heads to London where she fudges her way into a job at an upmarket jewellery store.

Not long into her tenure, her dodgy boss tries to hit on her, and, on a whim, she steals some loose diamonds from the safe (security was a little more lax back in the ’80s), by swallowing them. Her plan is to sell the stones and use the money to set her and Kelly up with a flat.

But then she meets handsome, charming grifter Boisie (Frank Dillane, son of actor Stephen, and last seen in The Essex Serpent), an “antiques dealer” who learnt his trade in prison, and sells a lot more than the Regency dinnerware on display in his shop.

Boisie agrees to help Joan sell her diamonds if she helps him with “just one job” – you can see where that’s going. That one job involves posing as a glamorous couple and flying to Spain to sell some stolen jewels, and the lead-up to the gig alone – buying herself a new wardrobe using a stolen chequebook – sees Joan being slowly seduced by the lifestyle. Driven by her desire to get back Kelly, who has been fostered with a wealthy family seemingly keen to keep her, Joan quickly embraces her newfound skills.

Only the first two episodes were made available for preview, but I was already completely on board for Joan’s ascent – or descent, depending on how you view it – into London’s underworld. The real Joan, whose underworld antics earned her the nickname “The Godmother”, was every bit as charismatic as Turner’s Joan; she claimed to visit her hairdresser daily to have her platinum hairdo touched up, owned 11 fur coats and some 2000 pairs of shoes, all while she and Boisie lived in a council flat to avoid suspicion.