Sally Wainwright’s Riot Women debuts on BritBox about middle‑aged punk band

Sally Wainwright’s new series Riot Women arrived Wednesday on BritBox, following a group of middle‑aged women who form a punk band and use music to confront taboos about aging and womanhood.

The show opens with Beth (Joanna Scanlan), a teacher and pianist whose life is unraveling, nearly attempting suicide before a pub‑keeper friend, Jess (Lorraine Ashbourne), asks her to join a band for a charity talent show. Beth soon recruits Kitty (Rosalie Craig), a volatile singer with a traumatic past whom she finds yowling a feral cover of Hole’s “Violet” at a dive karaoke bar; the two become unlikely songwriting partners.

Riot Women is not played as a straight comedy but as a realist social drama that treats womanhood itself as punk — rage, rebellion and the desire to be heard. The series includes a punk rager called “Seeing Red” about menopause, adds a subplot about misogyny on the police force, and features Holly (Tamsin Greig) as a police officer nearing retirement. New York Times critic James Poniewozik called Rosalie Craig "arresting" as Kitty, while also noting some plots veer toward melodrama.

By the end of its first season, the series expands beyond the putting‑on‑a‑show premise to map a wider network of the women’s family and social relationships, and a second season has already been ordered.

Key Topics

Culture, Riot Women, Sally Wainwright, Britbox, Rosalie Craig, Joanna Scanlan