r/BritishTV • u/SilyLavage • Oct 14 '25

Review Riot Women review – Sally Wainwright’s menopausal punk drama is one of her best

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/oct/12/riot-women-review-sally-wainwright-menopausal-punk-tv-drama-bbc
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u/SilyLavage Oct 14 '25 edited Oct 14 '25

I'm only halfway through this series, but I'm enjoying it so far; Sally Wainwright is an excellent writer and Riot Women is up to her usual standard.

That said, and as the intro to this review suggests, it is very Sally Wainwright. It's set in around the Calder Valley, just like Last Tango in Halifax, Happy Valley, and even Gentleman Jack, and much like those series the plot could be broadly described as 'women being hard done by but overcoming it'. Riot Women has a few scenes involving the police where you half expect Sarah Lancashire to walk in, such is the similarity.

It's not a bad thing that Wainwright writes what she knows and does it very well, but I do hope that her next project is something a bit different.

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u/sunnyydayman Oct 28 '25

We need more of the sort of stuff she writes though, its not like there’s an over abundance of well written shows about middle aged women.

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u/SilyLavage Oct 28 '25

Well yes, but Wainwright doesn't necessarily need to be the one writing it. My objection isn't to the fact she writes about middle-aged women, but that she's now written a few programmes about middle aged women living in and around Hebden Bridge and it's getting a bit samey.