Riot Women is the BBC’s answer to We Are Lady Parts, this time with women of the next generation up, including Beth (Joanna Scanlan – Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy) at a very low ebb in her life – snapping at her brother, Nick (Rick Warden – Red Eye), over the phone, because their mum’s in a dementia care home.
Holly (Tamsin Greig – Suspect Series 2) and Nisha (Taj Atwal – Too Good To Be True) are cops being called to a deal with an angry woman stomping around Morrisons, waving a knife about while drinking a lot. However, Holly’s about to retire.
Elsewhere, Kitty’s (Rosalie Craig – The Hack) still coming to terms (badly) with her husband dumping her for a young woman, but can the answer be for them all to try a new vocation? Beth declares to a keyboard salesman “I’m in a rock band”, and that it’s called Riot Women, as they sing songs about being menopausal.
The ultimate aim for the band is to win a local talent contest, and obviously for a rather fanciful excursion, but as a drama it feels uneven… perhaps bordering on okay. Maybe it’ll improve.
Still, on the plus side, without giving spoilers, as the music continues into and through the end credits, I do hope that causes the bloody annoying continuity announcers to shut the hell up.
On a couple of asides, Beth comments how she thinks once you get over 40, people stop noticing you and you become invisible. I certainly get that feeling later in life. Meanwhile, I very much doubt that Wickes would actually have sledgehammers on display, easy enough to just pick up willy nilly.
Riot Women begins tonight on BBC1 at 9pm, and I expect every episode will be online from day one, on BBC iPlayer.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but when it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
Director: Sally Wainwright
Producer: Jessica Taylor
Writer: Sally Wainwright
Cast:
Beth: Joanna Scanlan
Holly: Tamsin Greig
Jess: Lorraine Ashbourne
Kitty: Rosalie Craig
Nisha: Taj Atwal
Yvonne: Amelia Bullmore
Nick: Rick Warden
Tom: Jonny Green
Jerry: Tony Hirst
Assistant Manager: Layton Blake
Miranda: Macy Seelochan
Chloe: Shannon Lavelle
Rocco: Brodie Nkome
Junior: Klae Speight
Calvin: Lawrence Hodgson-Mullings
Barnaby: Ben Hunter
Shelley: Stephanie Dooley
Fearne: Ellise Chappell
Kam: Chandeep Uppal
Auntie Mary: Sue Johnston
Nancy: Anne Reid
Amy: Camille Hainsworth-Staples
Sanjay: Amit Shah
Shop Assistant: Ethan Joseph-Robert
Gavin: Mark Bazeley
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.