Sally Wainwright on Riot Women, Identity Theft of Menopause, and Writing Real Female Characters
1/17/202653 min
Award-winning British television creator Sally Wainwright joins Dr. Mary Claire Haver to discuss her groundbreaking new BBC series Riot Women, a drama about five midlife women who form a punk rock band while navigating menopause, aging parents, and the complexities of life after 50. Sally, the creative force behind acclaimed series including Happy Valley, Gentlemen Jack, and Last Tango in Halifax, shares how her own experience with perimenopause and menopause inspired the show and why she calls this life stage "identity theft."
The conversation explores Sally's journey from bus driver to one of British television's most celebrated showrunners...
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMary Claire Haver· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Today's guest is someone whose creative work has shaped the way millions of people see women on television. Not young women, not simplified Hollywood versions of women, but real women, older women, complicated women, angry women, brave women, women breaking rules, women who don't tidy up their emotions for anyone. Sally Wainwright is the creator and producer behind some of the most acclaimed British television dramas of the last 20 years: Happy Valley, Gentleman Jack, Last Tango in Halifax, Scott & Bailey, and Unforgiven. Her stories introduce us to characters who have lived entire lives before we ever meet them, women who carry grief, desire, sexuality, rage, intelligence, love, courage, exhaustion, trauma, and resilience in bodies that reflect actual lived experience. Now, Sally has a new six-episode BBC BritBox drama called Riot Women. It's a series about a group of five women in midlife who escape their complicated lives, filled with caring for kids and ailing parents, and dealing with menopause, by forming a rock band. I just finished watching it, and I was hooked within minutes. I cried in the first 10. I laughed hysterically