Happy Valley’s Sally Wainwright divulges emotional personal inspiration behind Riot Women – as cast of characters explained

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Late in 2022, I had the chance to interview Sally Wainwright for TopMob, just before the last season of Happy Valley aired. I was a huge fan of her work and pretty nervous about the interview! I’d been listening to The Archers years ago, knowing she’d written for the show after previously working as a bus driver. I also enjoyed Coronation Street in the 90s when she was one of the writers. And I really loved Scott & Bailey, the 2011 police drama she co-created and wrote, with Suranne Jones, Lesley Sharp, and Amelia Bullmore.

I’ve always been captivated by Sally Wainwright’s work. She has this incredible ability to portray women’s lives with such honesty and depth. I first really noticed it with *Last Tango in Halifax*, watching Nicola Walker and Sarah Lancashire find love later in life – it was just beautiful. Then, Sarah Lancashire completely blew me away in *Happy Valley* a couple of years later. And who could forget Suranne Jones making history so compelling in *Gentleman Jack*? Honestly, in my opinion, she’s the best at what she does – truly gifted at curating and writing stories about women, both in the past and today.

During our conversation, Sally Wainwright mentioned she was creating a new BBC series about five women experiencing menopause in Hebden Bridge. They form an amateur punk band as a way to express their feelings and compete in a talent contest. She admitted she wasn’t very knowledgeable about music, so I shared that I’d written two books about women in rock. She requested copies, and I was delighted by the thought that she might read them while working on the series.

Getting asked to be the music consultant for what became Riot Women was a dream opportunity. One of my tasks was to discover ARXX, a band from Brighton who ultimately composed the show’s original music. I also suggested that Kitty, the lead singer in Riot Women, perform Hole’s “Violet” during a karaoke scene. It’s a difficult song to pull off – Courtney Love’s raw emotion is hard to match – but Rosalie Craig, who we discovered for the role, absolutely nailed it.

Wainwright had been thinking about the concept for Riot Women for years. The inspiration struck her as a teen when she saw Howard Schuman’s groundbreaking 1970s musical drama, Rock Follies. The show, featuring a bold all-female rock band led by Rula Lenska, Julie Covington, and Charlotte Cornwell, captivated her – they were unapologetically themselves, and it was incredibly refreshing to watch.

I remember hearing that about ten years ago, Wainwright had this idea to start a band with older women as a way to explore the experience of menopause. It really fit with her whole belief that women should be able to do anything they want, at any age – even when things get tough, like when sleep is impossible and hot flashes come with memory lapses. It’s about owning that stage of life and doing it on our own terms.

Wainwright, who is turning 62 next month, described her experience with menopause. After speaking with hormone expert Louise Newson, and learning about her mother’s history of dementia and osteoporosis, she decided to start hormone replacement therapy (HRT). She initially considered it as research for her show, but then realized HRT can help prevent both osteoporosis and potentially dementia, although more research is needed to confirm the latter. Newson believes women should continue HRT for as long as they require it, and Wainwright jokingly pointed out that if men experienced menopause, HRT would be readily available everywhere, like at Tesco, as ARXX famously wrote.

Wainwright’s mother passed away at the end of 2022 after a six-year battle with dementia. He deeply misses sharing his scripts with her. While he often gets feedback from friends, it wasn’t the same as getting her opinion. He’s adjusted to life without her, but still feels a sense of loss, like something is missing. He believes she would have especially enjoyed his show, ‘Riot Women,’ as she was a fan of Tamsin Greig, who stars in it and was previously on the radio drama ‘The Archers’.

For a song ARXX created for Riot Women, Wainwright wrote the line, “You’re just like your mother.” This phrase was something her ex-husband – and the father of her two adult sons, who still live with her in Oxfordshire – often said during their arguments. He left her after nearly three decades of marriage, around the same time her mother received a dementia diagnosis. Wainwright explains that while it was a hurtful thing to hear at the time, difficult experiences can inspire good songwriting. Ultimately, the song reframes the line as a positive statement. She proudly embraces the comparison, stating, “I’m very happy to be like my mum!”

Sue Johnston and Anne Reid star in Riot Women as mothers struggling with dementia, a role partly inspired by the challenges many women face balancing teenage children and aging parents. The band members in the show are incredibly busy – juggling demanding jobs, rebellious kids, and the needs of their own mothers, all while dealing with hormonal changes. It’s amazing they even find time to practice!

Ultimately, the band serves as a supportive force for the five women portrayed by Craig, Greig, Bullmore, Joanna Scanlan, and Lorraine Ashbourne. Wainwright emphasizes that the actresses genuinely learned to play their instruments, stating, “I dislike seeing actresses pretend to play on television when people assume it’s the male musicians doing the work.”

Each actress had individual lessons before they began rehearsing. They spent two weeks practicing – one week focused on acting and another on playing their instruments as a band – all in preparation for filming in Hebden Bridge. Their very first performance together as Riot Women was amazing.

She smiled brightly, describing it as one of the most thrilling experiences she’d ever witnessed. She specifically recalled the energy of the actors after the final episode, when the fictional band, Riot Women, performed in a park in Hebden Bridge. They were clearly exhilarated! She emphasized how special and unifying being in a band can be, calling the whole thing “extraordinary.”

I was really struck by the dedication of director Wainwright – she actually learned to play the drums for this project, a fantastic show of commitment! It got me thinking about her younger days. She admitted to briefly fantasizing about being a rock star as a teen, inspired by shows like *Rock Follies*, but quickly realized she wasn’t destined for rock and roll glory. And honestly? She jokingly confessed that she’s probably reached peak ‘uncool’ even now, in her early sixties, and is perfectly happy embracing that!

Honestly, I think it’s brilliant. Watching Tanya Wainwright write ‘Riot Women,’ especially with such strong female characters, is amazing. And she’s not just writing *for* women, it’s a show for everyone! She says she loves creating female characters because they’re complex, emotionally honest, and face unique challenges in the world, and that just makes her work even more powerful – she’s a total rockstar in my book.

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2025-10-07 03:09