New drama for 6w which sounds like it will be a right laugh with singing music pmt drink drugs and rock and roll !!
every Sunday for 6w
The Happy Valley creator has turned her darkest hour into a rebellious tale of midlife women uniting in musical anarchy. The team behind the highly awaited drama talk vodka, rock’n’roll and hot flushes
Riot Women, Sally Wainwright’s hotly awaited new drama, will be billed as a menopause show, and that’s fine – a show can be proud of such a shorthand in 2025, and besides, there’s a lot of menopause in it.
Lorraine Ashbourne stars as Jess, a smart-mouthed pub landlady, leading her best life (house full of grown kids and grandkids, a boyfriend who does literally everything she says. “I have, in Jerry, written a weak man,” says Wainwright, contemplatively, as if it’s the first time that’s ever happened. “But he’s very likable”).
Nonetheless, Jess is overwhelmed – like all of us – by the state of the world, and decides to start a rock band for a refugee fundraiser.
She needs bandmates, naturally, so enter Tamsin Greig as Holly, a retiring police officer
Joanna Scanlan as Beth, a ground-down teacher and
Amelia Bullmore (https://www.theguardian.com/stage/amelia-bullmore) as Yvonne, a midwife with a stick up her arse.
They’re joined by Rosalie Craig as Kitty, a very hard-living shoplifter, significantly younger than the others
– she’s late 30s/early 40s in this role, the others are all mid-to-late 50s – but also menopausal.
Her USP is incredible charisma and a stunning voice, belted out at pub karaoke with vivacious rage, when she isn’t drinking neat vodka straight from the bottle or vandalising cars.
Riot Women, the band, come together at once – the show starts off with the energy of a one-last-heist drama.
They’re planning to do an Abba cover, until Beth rebels. She’s absolutely done with being nice. She’s been a competent pianist, accompanying school choirs all her life; she wants their music to express what they’re actually feeling. The songs they end up with – composed for the show by indie-punk two-piece ARXX – land in the bit of the Venn diagram where punk meets the menopause: an absolutely uncompromising “fuck you”.
Across the six episodes, we're set to see how their journey to punk-rock stardom goes from penning their first original song to discovering that they've got a hell of a lot to say.
As per the series synopsis: "As they juggle demanding jobs, grown-up children, complicated parents, husbands who’ve buggered off, and disastrous dates and relationships, the band becomes a catalyst for change in their lives, and it’s going to make them question everything
The six-part series is a testament to the power of friendship, music, and the resilience of women who refuse to be silenced by age or expectation.
"As the story progresses, it’s more than music that binds them; a deeply potent, long-buried secret begins to surface – one that unexpectedly entangles Kitty and Beth, the two unlikely creative masterminds behind the band, in a complex triangle – and threatens to tear everything apart."
The series boasts a batch of familiar faces including Lorraine Ashbourne (Sherwood (https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/sherwood-season-3-renewed-newsupdate/)), Amelia Bullmore (The Buccaneers), Rosalie Craig (Moonflower Murders (https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/magpie-murders-season-2-release/)) and Tamsin Greig (Friday Night Dinner), as well as Joanna Scanlan (After Love), Taj Atwal (Line of Duty), Chandeep Uppal (Holby City) and Macy-Jacob Seelochan (Shadow and Bone).
Further casting includes Anne Reid (The Sixth Commandment), Sue Johnston (The Royle Family), Peter Davison (Doctor Who), Claire Skinner (Outnumbered), Angel Coulby (Merlin), Jonny Green (White Lines) and Ellise Chappell (Yesterday).
Tony Hirst (Hollyoaks), Shannon Lavelle (The Hardacres), Mark Bazeley (Broadchurch), Amit Shah (Happy Valley), Rick Warden (Red Eye), Ben Batt (Domina) and Natalia Tena (Harry Potter) also star.
Completing the cast are Melanie La Barrie (& Juliet), Oliver Huntingdon (Sherwood), Richard Fleeshman (The Sandman), Olwen May (A Very British Scandal), Kevin Doyle (Downton Abbey), Nicholas Gleaves (Bodyguard) and Thomas Flynn (Masters of the Air).