{"id":196292,"date":"2025-10-13T04:20:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T04:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/196292\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T04:20:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T04:20:11","slug":"riot-women-review-new-drama-from-happy-valley-creator-is-absolutely-glorious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/196292\/","title":{"rendered":"Riot Women review \u2013 New drama from Happy Valley creator is absolutely glorious"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n

Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n

In the process of killing herself, Beth (Joanna Scanlan<\/a>) finds she\u2019s interrupted by a series of urgent phone calls. First, her brother, protesting plans to buy an annuity for their mother, and then, mercifully, her friend Jess (Lorraine Ashbourne) asking whether she wants to join a rock band. \u201cWhy?\u201d she asks. \u201cFor fun,\u201d Jess replies. And so begins Riot Women<\/a>, the latest chapter of Sally Wainwright<\/a>\u2019s televisual diorama of life in the Calder Valley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Joining depressed teacher Beth and lonely publican Jess on their crusade into a territory usually occupied by \u201cmen of a certain age\u201d are a series of local misfits. There\u2019s recently retired copper Holly (Tamsin Greig) and her dour sister Yvonne (Amelia Bullmore), as well as Holly\u2019s young prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Nisha (Taj Atwal). \u201cWe sing songs about being middle-aged and menopausal and more or less invisible,\u201d Beth tells a bemused salesman at the music store. \u201cAnd you thought The Clash were angry!\u201d But the band is missing one thing: a lead vocalist. That\u2019s where Kitty (Rosalie Craig), a volatile addict who\u2019s recently been arrested by Holly, steps in. She has the pipes, but she needs somewhere to kip \u2013 so she ends up bunking with Beth. As the music brings them closer, the two women strike up an unlikely, and deeply connected, friendship. <\/p>\n

Riot Women forms the third chapter of a loose trilogy, in which Wainwright has turned Hebden Bridge and its wild environs into a distinctive canvas for British drama. There is a shared DNA here: Last Tango in Halifax and Happy Valley were starkly different<\/a> in tone, but both took strong female protagonists and showed them reasserting control over a society that, all too often, marginalised them. <\/p>\n

\"\u2018You<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

\u2018You thought The Clash were angry\u2019: The \u2018Riot Women\u2019 lineup (BBC\/Drama Republic)<\/p>\n

And this is the crux of Riot Women. The characters feel forgotten by personal and professional structures that prioritise men and only value women for their youth. \u201cLet\u2019s start a riot,\u201d the theme music roars. \u201cWe won\u2019t be quiet!\u201d It makes explicit a manifesto that has always been latent in Wainwright\u2019s work. From Nicola Walker\u2019s resilient widow Gillian in Last Tango to Sarah Lancashire\u2019s redoubtable detective Catherine in Happy Valley, nobody has managed to make middle-aged women more visible than Wainwright. <\/p>\n

She\u2019s aided here by a stellar cast, who deliver her signature tripping dialogue with confidence. At the centre of all things is Scanlan\u2019s Beth, a woman who inhabits a duality: she is both extremely resilient and fundamentally fragile. Scanlan has long been a superb supporting presence on British TV, and Riot Women feels like a rare opportunity for her talents to take the lead. Beth is vulnerable and powerful, and Scanlon plays both sides of the character beautifully. It balances with Craig\u2019s more flamboyantly emotional performance. \u201cOf all the gin joints in all the towns in the world,\u201d Beth deadpans to Kitty. \u201cI wonder what made me walk into yours?\u201d<\/p>\n

There are notes of narrative convenience about their relationship, but that doesn\u2019t dilute the impact. As for the music, it\u2019s best to go in with a high tolerance for cringe. \u201cPoor little manchild forced to suffer because apparently I\u2019m just like my mother,\u201d Kitty warbles. It might not be Patti Smith, but it\u2019s no worse than the latest Taylor Swift album. Riot Women \u2013 as they call the band \u2013 celebrate the subversive act of being \u201ca rebellious suburban badass bitch\u201d, which comes across as more than a little twee. But while the show might well be marketed as The Full Monty meets School of Rock, while the drama unfolds \u2013 and these women\u2019s lives become more rounded \u2013 the music becomes more of a backdrop. A thread to connect these seemingly disparate people. <\/p>\n

\"Bass<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Bass instinct: Tamsin Greig in \u2018Riot Women\u2019 (BBC\/Drama Republic)<\/p>\n

In its setup, Riot Women feels a bit obvious. These women, abandoned by their husbands (\u201cmen are just wired wrong,\u201d Jess observes) and children, reclaiming their voices through music. But Wainwright has always known how to take a simple story \u2013 an interfamily saga or a cop drama \u2013 and tell it so dynamically, so charismatically, that it is elevated. Like its characters, Riot Women takes its time to come into its own \u2013 but, when it does, it is full-throated and glorious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-196292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}