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'Riot Women' embraces midlife female fury on BritBox

Yvonne Vaux (Amelia Bullmore), Kitty Eckersley (Rosalie Craig), Holly Gaskell (Tamsin Greig), Miranda (Macy-Jacob Seelochan). (Courtesy of Helen Williams/Drama Republic Ltd.)
Courtesy of Helen Williams/Drama Republic Ltd.
Yvonne Vaux (Amelia Bullmore), Kitty Eckersley (Rosalie Craig), Holly Gaskell (Tamsin Greig), Miranda (Macy-Jacob Seelochan). (Courtesy of Helen Williams/Drama Republic Ltd.)

When five middle-aged women in Northern England form an amateur punk band, it’s because they’re fed up: with their thankless jobs, ungrateful children, aging parents and with men in general. That’s the plot of “Riot Women.”

As life grinds them down, they find new purpose in each other and in the music, original songs by ARXX. Hilarious and heartbreaking in equal measure, “Riot Women” grapples head-on with the realities of menopause, misogyny, trauma and aging.

Here & Now‘s Indira Lakshmanan speaks with the show’s creator, writer and director Sally Wainwright.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2026 WBUR

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