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The fierce, funny Riot Women puts a middle-aged punk band together

The latest show from Happy Valley's Sally Wainwright hits BritBox.

By Jenna Scherer  |  January 12, 2026 | 1:00pm
Photo: BritBox
TV Reviews Riot Women
The fierce, funny Riot Women puts a middle-aged punk band together

Up until recently, the television powers that be had very little interest in telling stories about women of a certain age. Once an actress hits 40, the industry prefers to leave them out in the cold, a trend that has finally started to change over the past few years thanks to the rise of shows such as Hacks and Bad Sisters. But no series has plumbed the heart and soul of middle-aged ladies quite like Riot Women, an ensemble dramedy from Happy Valley creator Sally Wainwright. Fierce, funny, and profound, the show follows a motley group of women who form a punk band. It’s a kaleidoscopic exploration of female rage, community, and the possibility of reinvention at a harrowing turning point in life.

The opening scene of the series signals that Riot Women won’t be pulling any punches. In a South Yorkshire country house, fiftysomething schoolteacher Beth (Joanna Scanlan) stands on tiptoe to secure a noose around her neck. She’s saved at the last moment by a phone call from eccentric pub owner Jess (Lorraine Ashbourne): Would she be interested in joining a band Jess is putting together for a charity event? It’s enough to convince Beth to delay her suicide—for now, at least—because, for the first time in ages, she’s got something to look forward to.

The outfit is rounded out by recently retired cop Holly (Tamsin Greig) on bass and her non-nonsense sister Yvonne (Amelia Bullmore) on guitar, while two younger women, Nisha (Taj Atwal) and Kam (Chandeep Uppal), sing backup. Initially, it’s a lark, a chance to have some fun while butchering ABBA’s “Waterloo.” But for Beth, who sees the band as an outlet to express her anger at a world that wants to render her invisible, it’s a reason to live. That’s when she stumbles upon someone belting out Hole’s “Violet” in a karaoke bar: Kitty (Rosalie Craig), a down-and-out alcoholic with a traumatic past and a killer voice who’s seething with the kind of rage Beth longs to express. 

The instant connection between these two is the bleeding, wailing heart of Riot Women. No one in Beth’s life gets why she’d welcome this volatile drifter into her home, but she and Kitty become soulmates and creative collaborators, their quasi-romantic friendship a cure for their mutual loneliness and desperation. Scanlan and Craig’s chemistry is both explosive and loving; and together, they create the most compelling female situationship on TV since Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder first locked horns on Hacks. 

Though the others are reluctant to bring on Kitty at first, they change their tune when they hear her sing. And slowly but steadily, they transform themselves into an honest-to-god punk band, fueled by the desire to vent their frustration about the events unfolding in their lives. While Beth and Kitty are the show’s main focus, each character’s story is lovingly teased out, encompassing everything from complicated feelings about motherhood, aging parents, and sexuality to coping with the travails of menopause and misogyny. Riot Women deftly balances comedy and sweetness with heavy topics like depression, rape, and domestic abuse. Wainwright knows that the darker things get, the more vital it becomes to laugh into the void.  

Scanlan is one of the U.K.’s most reliable character actors, and it’s thrilling to watch her flex her muscles in a meaty starring role. Beth is a seemingly ordinary woman who’s anything but. (And the way Scanlan digs into her layers suggests that, in fact, no woman is ordinary.) Our hero has spent her whole life compromising and performing the roles expected of her by her colleagues and her moody adult son, Tom (Jonny Green). But the despair and anger that comes with menopause, coupled with the support of her bandmates, gives Beth permission to explore who she can be when she isn’t only a nurturer.

Although this is Craig’s first lead TV role, she’s a seasoned West End stage vet. (Musical theater fans will be unsurprised that her pipes are equally as killer whether she’s singing Courtney Love or Stephen Sondheim.) Her performance is a tour de force from the moment we meet Kitty, who’s stumbling through a grocery store with a bottle of vodka in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other. Years of abuse and hard living have turned her into a feral beast, but Craig always lets us see the wounded heart beneath the armor. 

Greig has made a name for herself in aughts-comedy faves like Shaun Of The Dead, Black Books, and Green Wing. On Riot Women, she proves her dramatic chops are equally as sharp as a woman caught between affection for her friends and an unerring sense of duty. Meanwhile, Ashbourne brings complexity to Jess, who’s both a good-natured caretaker for the Hebden Bridge community and a stubborn parent whose resentment threatens to tear her family apart. And supporting players like Atwal, Green, Natalia Tena, and Macy Seelochan bring lively detail to the series’ bright, complex world. 

Riot Women was a critical and audience hit when it premiered in the U.K. last year, and it’s already been renewed for a second season. In a time when women are increasingly isolated from each other and their autonomy is under threat, Wainwright’s series explores the possibilities of what can happen when they come together, turn it up to 11, and scream into the dark.   

Jenna Scherer is a contributor to The A.V. Club. Riot Women premieres January 14 on BritBox.     

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