Joanna Scanlan<\/a>, is about to take her own life, until the phone rings; her brother is on the other end, complaining about the cost of the care home that she has selected for their mother, who has dementia (the undertone of their conversation, inevitably, is that Beth should be the one to shoulder the caring responsibility).<\/p>\nWhen Beth arrives at school, her pupils seem to look straight through her; when she opens up to a colleague about her suicidal intent, he deflects and brushes her off, as if her feelings are somehow utterly invalid. \u201cDo you think women of a certain age become invisible?\u201d she asks later. Christ, I thought. I\u2019m 33 \u2013 is this what I have to look forward to in a decade or two? Being overlooked, undervalued and outright ignored? Getting asked if I\u2019ve \u201cconsidered HRT\u201d whenever I express any emotion that\u2019s deemed a bit tricky?<\/p>\n
But I shouldn\u2019t have judged Sally Wainwright so quickly. Because, with a flick of the writer\u2019s pen, Beth\u2019s life is about to change. Her friend, the straight-talking pub landlady Jess, played by Sherwood\u2019<\/em>s Lorraine Ashbourne, is putting together a rock band to play in a talent competition at her grandkids\u2019 school. And she wants Beth, who plays piano, to enter the fold.<\/p>\nAt first, the group\u2019s ambitions don\u2019t extend much further than getting through a cover of Abba\u2019s \u201cWaterloo\u201d. They\u2019re semi-resigned to the fact that they\u2019ll be at worst a laughing stock, at best a novelty act (Jess\u2019s daughter suggests that they name themselves The Old Bags Department). But soon they find that music is a cathartic outlet, helping them open up about hot flushes, mood swings and everything else that they\u2019re contending with. \u201cAnd you thought The Clash were angry,\u201d Beth says.<\/p>\n\n\nMusic becomes a cathartic outlet for the Riot Women (BBC \/ Drama Republic \/ Helen Williams)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Watching the band \u2013 which also comprises shoplifter-turned-singer Kitty (West End star Rosalie Craig), retired police officer Holly (Tamsin Greig) on bass and her midwife sister Yvonne (Amelia Bullmore) on guitar \u2013 grow in confidence, and in audacity, is frankly, well, a riot. The women stop second-guessing themselves, no longer putting a polite, palatable spin on their feelings or the changes that their bodies are going through. Not everyone \u201cgets\u201d it, but the sense of liberation is palpable.<\/p>\n\n\nJoining the band changes all five women\u2019s lives (BBC \/ Drama Republic)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
It\u2019s not just the physical and emotional changes that come with the menopause that Wainwright and her actors deal with beautifully; they also grapple with the burden that comes with being part of the \u201csandwich\u201d generation, supporting their teenage or twentysomething children while looking after their ageing parents. Wainwright\u2019s own mother had dementia, and it\u2019s not hard to see how her experiences must have informed one painfully poignant scene later in the series, where Holly must explain to her elderly but suddenly childlike mother (played by Last Tango in Halifax <\/em>star Anne Reid) that her own parents are long dead.<\/p>\n\n\n
The women stop second-guessing themselves, no longer putting a polite, palatable spin on their feelings or the changes that their bodies are going through<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I can only imagine how validating it must be for women who are going through similar experiences in midlife to see the reality of menopause play out on screen, in a way that goes far deeper than predictable jokes about night sweats but also feels somehow invigorating. It\u2019s powerful and a bit taboo-busting, the televisual equivalent of a bunch of fiftysomethings sticking two fingers up at the world.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s also vital viewing for younger women too. The reality might sometimes be bleak, sometimes messy, but the collective silence around menopause (which only seems to have started to lift, and slowly at that, within the past decade or so) means that most of us reach this point with very little idea about what to expect. That lack of knowledge surely makes us more likely to shrug off or downplay symptoms; it certainly means that we\u2019re not properly equipped to deal with such a major change. I\u2019m sure I\u2019m not alone among other female twenty- and thirtysomethings when I say that it\u2019s something I\u2019ve never even discussed properly with my own mum.<\/p>\n\n\nTamsin Greig plays police officer turned bassist Holly (BBC \/ Drama Republic \/ Helen Williams)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
A series like this helps to open up that conversation \u2013 and while it doesn\u2019t shy away from the pain of being suddenly deemed invisible by society, it also leans into the sheer power that comes with upturning expectations, shrugging off shame and refusing to shut up. When they\u2019re on stage, the women are having the time of their lives, a reminder that joy and silliness aren\u2019t the preserve of the young.<\/p>\n
Wainwright recently said that she wanted to find a way to talk about being a woman in midlife \u201cthat was energising and uplifting and offered a solution\u201d. With this show, she\u2019s done just that. When I grow up, I definitely want to be a riot woman.<\/p>\n
If you are experiencing feelings of distress and isolation, or are struggling to cope, The Samaritans offers support; you can speak to someone for free over the phone, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.<\/em><\/p>\nIf you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The Helpline is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. <\/em><\/p>\nIf you are in another country, you can go to <\/em>www.befrienders.org<\/em><\/a> to find a helpline near you.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.style.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well, this is a bit of a downer, isn\u2019t it? Those were my precise thoughts about halfway through the first episode of Riot Women, the new BBC One drama from Happy Valley mastermind Sally Wainwright. Like Happy Valley, it\u2019s set around Calderdale in West Yorkshire; like Happy Valley, its focus is firmly trained on women […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2086999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[391383,393112,393109,393110,393115,393114,393108,393113,393111],"class_list":["post-2086998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-beth","tag-drama-republic","tag-happy-valley","tag-helen-williams","tag-joanna-scanlan","tag-riot-women","tag-sally-wainwright","tag-tamsin-greig","tag-west-yorkshire"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Riot-Women-is-taboo-busting-TV-thats-made-me-feel-braver.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2086998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2087000,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086998\/revisions\/2087000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2086999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2086998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2086998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2086998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}