Sally Wainwright's latest Yorkshire-based BBC One drama Riot Women sees menopausal women forming a punk band
Screenwriter Sally Wainwright was busy with creating her Bafta-winning TV series Happy Valley when she first conceived the idea to write a story about a rock band made up of menopausal women.
The 62-year-old British screenwriter decided to let the ideas for her new BBC One drama, Riot Women, “germinate and cook for a while” instead.
“It’s good, because I’ve gone through things that have become good copy in the end,” admits Wainwright, whose first original drama was At Home With The Braithwaites, 25 years ago.
“Riot Women is quite personal to me; it’s autobiographical. I do feel like there is a lot of me in Joanna Scanlan’s character, Beth. So it’s been a cathartic and therapeutic experience. It’s about women of a certain age, and it’s about menopause, but it’s also about the things that happen that aren’t necessarily to do with the menopause. It’s about the swings and arrows of life.
“For me, it was about my mum getting dementia. That was one of the things I wanted to write about. But I wanted to write about that age in a way that was uplifting, interesting, and that would grab people’s attention. So the idea of the rock band was a separate thought about how you can put all the difficult things that happen to you into some sort of creativity – as I was doing with writing a TV series – by forming a rock band.”
Riot Women follows five menopausal women – a teacher, a police officer, a pub landlady, a midwife, and a shoplifting freeloader – based in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. Thanks to a local talent contest, they decide to form a punk rock band, and suddenly find they have a lot more to say about being middle-aged women navigating the ebbs and flows of life. But as they get closer, the teacher, Beth, played by Scanlan, 63, and freeloader, Kitty, played by Rosalie Craig, 44, discover a surprising connection from their past that turns their world upside down.
“The heart of the drama is a very complex human problem – a circumstance that forces the characters to confront their pasts, presents and futures. It’s Sally Wainwright, so it goes without saying that there are many narratives that weave in and out – issues of domestic violence, misogyny, divorce, ageing (both parental and personal) – but also moments of joy and elation and friendship and love,” says Craig, who appeared as Virginia Wilson in the Netflix series 1899.
For Scanlan, who won the Bafta for best actress for her performance in After Love, Wainwright’s writing is full of layers that are exciting for an actor to play.
“It’s a very beautiful and highly intriguing piece of writing, which allows viewers to get a glimpse of the different world that is ahead of them,” says Scanlan. “The writing is also very economical, as the whole story is kind of very quickly told, and then we go on that massive journey. It takes such skill to put that together, and it’s been a joy to be part of it.
“You don’t need to do much other than say what Sally’s written, because if you try and make more of it, or try and add things, it doesn’t really help. The dramatic engine is inherent, so you just have to let that play out and try to feel it. It’s a very poetic structure. You’ve got this beginning, and then everything unravels into complexity and joy, ultimately.”
British actress Tamsin Greig, 59, who portrays a retired police officer, agrees and adds: “I think all of our characters were just different sides of the Sally Wainwright dice. “It was really great. You just needed to look at everybody else and go, ‘Oh, I’m also that quite deep, straightforward and wild.’ She is a genius.”
Before the cast, including British actress Lorraine Ashbourne, 64, who stars as the pub landlady Jess, and 61-year-old Amelia Bullmore, who stars as midwife Yvonne, started filming, they had to spend some time learning how to play an instrument.
“I learnt the drums,” says Ashbourne, who is known for her role as Joan in Alma’s Not Normal.
Wainwright, whose other shows include Gentleman Jack, Last Tango In Halifax and Unforgiven, adds: “I always wanted to learn how to play the drums too, and it was a good stress-reliever. I was really keen that when the cast were playing their instruments, they looked like a band.
“I didn’t want it to look like they were miming at all. So we did ask the fantastic ladies to learn their instruments, which was part of the deal from the start. It was an extraordinary thing to witness. I think they spent five months learning their instruments – apart from Lorraine.”
“I learnt how to play the drums in like five days,” admits Ashbourne. It was an incredible buzz. We were a real band. I mean nothing else on earth can compare.”
Bullmore, who has worked with Wainwright on a few TV shows, including Scott & Bailey and Happy Valley, agrees and adds: “It was an absolutely incredible experience being in a band. I mean, beyond any expectations of what I thought it would have felt like. It was absolutely amazing. A lifetime high.
“When Kitty was in the midst of us, we were a bit more courageous, sang a bit more loudly and made a few more mistakes.”
In real life, Craig is known for her performances in musical theatre, including playing Arwen in the musical stage adaptation of The Lord Of The Rings. So it was no surprise that portraying Kitty, who was also the lead singer in the rock band, felt like home.
“There’s this beautiful moment when Kitty sings for the first time during one of our rehearsals. We all got goosebumps and couldn’t believe how inept we were in comparison,” says Greig, who learnt to play the bass guitar.
The music on Riot Women is produced by the Brighton-based punk duo ARXX, who created the original music for the six-episode series. It’s also what Craig thinks will excite most people about the series.
“It’s not just any music – original, powerful, rebellious, female-led, hilarious, riotous punk music that infuses, leads and expands the drama. That feels really thrilling – to be pushing at the boundaries of what television can do,” says Craig.
Riot Women comes to BBC One on Sunday, October 12 at 9pm.