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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Riot Women \u2605 \u2605 \u2605 \u2605 <\/p>\n British screenwriter and director Sally Wainwright has a particular magic with dialogue. Her words, tuned with a scalpel-sharp precision and grounded believability to each character, make you forget they\u2019ve ever graced a script.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the case with grieving Sergeant Catherine Cawood in Wainwright\u2019s award-winning series Happy Valley; 19th century maverick Anne Lister in Gentleman Jack; the Bronte sisters in To Walk Invisible; and late-in-life lover Ceila Dawson in Last Tango in Halifax. Wainwright writes female characters spectacularly (male ones do all right, too).<\/p>\n Behold a new ensemble of finessed, deeply distinct and dialogue-blazing characters in her latest work, the six-part drama series Riot Women. Set in Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, it\u2019s led by five mostly middle-aged women: Beth (Joanna Scanlan, Slow Horses<\/a>, The Thick of It), Kitty (Rosalie Craig, The Hack), Jess (Lorraine Ashbourne, Alma\u2019s Not Normal), Holly (Tamsin Greig, Black Books) and Yvonne (Amelia Bullmore, Happy Valley, The Crown).<\/p>\n Related Article Ground down by life to varying degrees, these women \u2013 a teacher, a retiring police officer, a pub landlady, a midwife and a shoplifter with a prison record \u2013 decide to form a punk band.<\/p>\n For Beth, dealing with self-centred family members, a departed spouse and increasing invisibility at work (\u201cThey\u2019ve all had the best of me,\u201d she says of her son and ex-husband. \u201cAnd now that I\u2019ve got nothing left to give, I\u2019m dispensable\u201d), the musical collaborations literally save her life. She is midway through putting a strung-up noose around her neck when Jess phones to suggest they start a band for a charity gig.<\/p>\n Riot Women is about these women \u2013 funny, furious, smart, tired, hopeful, striving women \u2013 having fun but also them finding a place to declare (loudly with amps!) who they are, what they think and their oft-forgotten value.<\/p>\n It\u2019s about the million ways middle-aged women deal with children, partners, parents, work, retirement and love (new and old) while still pursuing wants and needs that aren\u2019t necessarily tedious, old-boring-fart predilections.<\/p>\n It\u2019s about presumptions made about women over 50 and, in the hands of Wainwright, it\u2019s delivered with unbridled reality, wisdom and wit.<\/p>\n Scanlan as Beth is particularly compelling. Watching her unfurling joy and sense of regained power as she writes and performs songs conveying burning feelings and thoughts is marvellous. The moment when her self-centred son Tom, and his girlfriend, are put in their place is quite satisfying. Greig\u2019s hilarious first date and unflinching investigation of a nasty co-worker\u2019s despicable act is riveting. And Ashbourne\u2019s ever-volcanic ability to speak her mind with quick-mouthed candour shines on here.<\/p>\n Wainwright has assembled many past collaborators for this show \u2013 Scanlan, Anne Reid (Last Tango, Hot Fuzz), Bullmore, Amit Shah, Kevin Doyle and Oliver Huntingdon. It\u2019s great to see new ones joining her, too. Wainwright also makes a cameo in the last episode at a recording studio bar. And there\u2019s great original songs \u2013 Seeing Red, Just Like Your Mother and Riot Women (\u201cLet\u2019s start a riot\/We won\u2019t be quiet\/We run the world and we\u2019re not even tired\u201d) \u2013 all belted out to increasingly adoring audiences.<\/p>\n Riot Women is a winner. Three of its episodes were directed by the late Australian director Amanda Brotchie<\/a>, who is also known for her work on Doctor Who, Gentleman Jack, Lowdown, Renegade Nell and Picnic at Hanging Rock. A definite must-watch.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Taj](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/8482f7e1d8057164dbe30f025ac1f40459f6b606.jpeg\")
Taj Atwal (left) as Nisha,\u00a0Rosalie Craig as Kitty and\u00a0Tamsin Greig as Holly in Riot Women.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/f1b4b2277754bc992fd5951bfaee5a9ec56269c4.jpeg\")
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Joanna Scanlan as Beth in\u00a0Riot Women.<\/p>\n