The BBC series promises to be one of the best programmes of the past 12 monthsAmelia Bullmore, Rosalie Craig and Tamsin Greig in Riot Women(Image: BBC)

Riot Women is premiering on BBC One, but what’s it about, how many episodes are there, who’s in it and where have you’ve seen them before?

The new series arrives from the mind of West Yorkshire native Sally Anne Wainwright, best known for her acclaimed series Happy Valley.

While she also penned Scott & Bailey Last Tango in Halifax and Gentleman Jack, Happy Valley remains her biggest project.

Running from 2014 until 2023, with big gaps between the three seasons, Happy Valley starred Sarah Lancashire as Catherine Cawood.

The series followed divorced police sergeant Sarah as she tried to navigate life after the tragic death of her daughter.

Praised for its hard-hitting themes and stellar performances, Happy Valley won the 2015 BAFTA Award for Best Drama Series, and won another BAFTA for Best Drama for the second series.

Fans of the series will be keeping their fingers crossed that Riot Women is another successful venture from one of the UK’s best television writers.

What is Riot Women about?The cast of Riot Women on the BBC(Image: BBC)

Set in Hebden Bridge, Riot Women follows the fortunes of five menopausal women who form a punk rock band to take part in a local talent contest.

Consisting of six episodes, the series is described by creator Sally Wainwright as ‘even more Hebden-centric than Happy Valley’.

With the band consisting of a teacher, a police officer, a pub landlady, a midwife and a shoplifting freeloader, they navigate complicated family lives, relationships and ageing through their music.

Explaining why she had chosen to set Riot Women in West Yorkshire, multi-Bafta-winning writer Sally said: “I do like writing in my own vernacular because I think I can get more comedy out of the language if I’m writing in my own dialect…

“You get a great sense of place, which I think is important in a TV show in order to feel like you really know where you are when you turn it on.

“It has a very particular atmosphere, and I think you achieve that by being in a specific part of the world.”

Riot Women’s castJoanna Scanlan – BethRosalie Craig – KittyTamsin Greig – HollyLorraine Ashbourne – JessAmelia Bullmore – as YvonneTaj Atwal – NishaChandeep Uppal – KamMacy Seelochan – MirandaTony Hirst – JerryWhere you’ve seen the cast of Riot Women before

Leading the cast is Joanna Scanlan, best known for appearing in The Thick of It, Big School, Puppy Love, No Offence and Getting On. The BAFTA nominee has appeared in the films Pearl Earring, Notes on a Scandal, The Invisible Woman and Bridget Jones’s Baby.

Nottingham native Rosalie Craig has appeared in Moonflower Murders and Serpent Queen, while Lorraine Ashbourne recently turned in a memorable performance in Alma’s Not Normal.

Filling out the rest of the cast is The Buccaneers’ Amelia Bullmore, Line of Duty’s Taj Atwal, Holby City’s Chandeep Uppal and Shadow and Bone’s Macy Seelochan.

Riot Women airs on BBC One and on the BBC iPlayer at 9pm on Sunday, October 12