Happy Valley Creator’s New Show, Riot Women, Is Coming To BBC One
Happy Valley and Gentleman Jack creator Sally Wainwright is bringing her latest creation to BBC One later this year, and we’re very excited. Riot Women focuses on five women who decide to form a punk rock band to vent their frustrations. Starring Tamsin Grieg (Friday Night Dinner), it’s a drama aware of the unlikely setup and, like most of Wainwright’s work, has a thing or two to say about the roles and expectations of women. Here’s everything you need to know.
What is Riot Women about?
After last year’s more fantastical highwaywoman series, Renegade Nell on Disney+, Wainwright returns to a similar contemporary, real-world setting to the hugely successful Happy Valley with Riot Women. It follows five women in middle age, who all share similar pressures and problems in life: “Demanding jobs, grown-up children, complicated parents, husbands who’ve buggered off, and disastrous dates and relationships” as the BBC’s official synopsis puts it.
There’s Jess (Bridgerton’s Lorraine Ashbourne), Beth (A Very Royal Scandal’s Joanna Scanlan), Kitty (The Serpent Queen’s Rosalie Craig), Yvonne (The Buccaneer’s Amelia Bullmore) and Holly (Grieg). When a local talent contest is announced to be held in their neighbourhood, the five women come together and decide to throw caution to the wind to form a punk band for a bit of fun.
The women discover that their new venture means more to them than they expected, and that they have plenty to say about their lives in their lyrics and music. As they pen their first song together, their frustrations and emotions come flowing out, and each woman finds a new perspective on life. They feel empowered to make changes, with music as their catalyst. As time goes on, however, it becomes apparent that there’s a hidden, buried secret from the past that will, in particular, entangle both Kitty and Beth – and suddenly the whole band could be torn apart.
What else do we know and who else is in the cast?
Riot Women is set to be six parts long, and while there’s no firm release date, it will come to BBC One and iPlayer at some point later in 2025. Other members of the cast include Tony Hirst (Murder, Mystery and My Family), Anne Reid (The Sixth Commandment), Sue Johnston (Downton Abbey), Claire Skinner (Outnumbered) and Peter Davison (Doctor Who).
