Meet the cast of Riot Women
Tamsin Greig, Rosalie Craig, Joanna Scanlan, Lorraine Ashbourne and Amelia Bullmore are the Riot Women
BBC
- Amy Raphael
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Tamsin Grieg
plays Holly (bass)
BBC / Drama Republic
When Greig got the email asking if she was interested in doing Riot Women, she was so thrilled she threw her phone across the room.
Her character Holly is a divorced police officer leaving the force who’s having a go at dating. There’s a scene in episode three that may well become a watercooler moment: after a few dates with the charming, considerably younger Jojo (Richard Fleeshman), Holly goes back to his flat. She is surprised by his sexual predilection (no spoilers!), but walks away with her head held high. “Sally could write anything for me and I’d do it,” says Greig. “Plus Richard is such a great actor that the terrible awkwardness was hilarious. Sally understands the female brain so well that she knew Holly would be wondering if she should just go through with [the sexual act] because it’d be rude to say no. Women have this desire to please.”
Sally could write anything for me and I'd do it
Greig says she can sing, but wasn’t in a band at school because she was “an awkward kid on the outskirts of things”. Learning the bass was tough. “It’s a heavy instrument and the strings hurt the ends of my fingers. I ended up playing with a glove on one hand and then I found these silicon finger tops like tiny condom hats. My bass teacher had never seen anything like it.” Was it worth it?
“Yes! I was in a band with these amazing women, and we weren’t completely s**t! We still WhatsApp each other all the time.”
Rosalie Craig
plays Kitty (vocals, guitar)
BBC / Drama Republic
Rosalie Craig, who has an award-winning background in musical theatre as well as TV roles in Moonflower Murders and The Serpent Queen, did a “breathtaking” amount of homework to win her role. “Rosalie nailed the character,” recalls Wainwright. “It’s the best audition I’ve ever seen. I’m hoping that Riot Women does for Rosalie what Happy Valley did for James Norton — makes her famous overnight.”
“I took it really seriously because I’ve never played a lead in a TV drama,” Craig explains. “And how often do you audition for Sally Wainwright? She gave me lots of notes; she holds the DNA to her characters, so I listened very carefully. I got a late flight back to Dublin afterwards, where I was filming Moonflower Murders, and I had to change out of Kitty’s punky clothes at the airport. It was chaos!”
Performing with the Riot Women released my rage
At 45, Craig is the youngest member of Riot Women, but she reveals that she’s already perimenopausal, on HRT and has “no idea what the hell is happening to me”. She already knew how to sing so didn’t need lessons, but was surprised by “the release of rage” that comes with being in a band. “When we did our first rehearsal as Riot Women, I suddenly realised why all the boys at school were in bands! Bonding over music also really helped my nerves — I’ve watched the others on the
telly for years and I felt like I’d won the lottery when I was acting alongside them.”
Joanna Scanlan
plays Beth (keyboards)
BBC / Drama Republic
Joanna Scanlan, who was one of the best things about The Thick of It, won a Bafta for After Love and was in Slow Horses, immediately said yes to Wainwright and wasn’t fazed by the idea of playing keyboards. “I come from quite a musical family, sang in choirs at school and played the piano until I was 10. I’m exactly the right age for Riot Women: I loved punk and its rejection of perfection, and I’ve come through the menopause. I wouldn’t say I had it badly — certainly not as badly as Beth — but there are extraordinary changes. I have almost forgotten what I was like before it.”
Given the age of the band in Riot Women, some storylines inevitably focus on women being increasingly invisible as they age. Scanlan half-jokes that she’s always felt invisible. “Because I’m 5ft 2in! I’ve been more of an observer of life and invisibility is a useful cloak. On the other hand, I’ve wanted to be heard, to be taken seriously.”
I've forgotten what I was like before the menopause
One of the joys of Riot Women was, she says, staying in a house like Beth’s (large, airy, isolated) and being able to walk to work across the Yorkshire countryside. “It was magnificent. Talk about Wuthering Heights!” Other bonuses were Wainwright’s “genius scripts” and a mostly female cast. “I’ve known Amelia for 30 years and Tamsin for 25. But everyone was just top notch.”
Lorraine Ashbourne
plays Jess (drums)
BBC / Drama Republic
“Riot Women is an antidote to the endless young, sexy kids on telly: it shamelessly and fearlessly talks about older women and their potential,” says Lorraine Ashbourne, the family lynchpin in both Sherwood and Alma’s Not Normal. “I love the way Sally writes about the menopause so openly, because it’s still taboo. I’ve admired her writing for years.”
Ashbourne, who has three grown-up kids with Andy Serkis, all also actors, continues enthusiastically: “Jess is the closest character to me that I’ve ever played. Jess is me: the wrong side of 50, looking after ageing parents, kids still at home, trying to keep a partner, a job, a career. I am menopausal and things
are changing and it’s sad and horrible.
Jess is me – the wrong side of 50 and messy
“At the same time, I refuse to give in! I’ve still got dreams and plans and ambitions. I relished having the opportunity to tell a story that’s about me and my messiness.”
She laughs, adding, “It was also bloody brilliant being in a rock band. The buzz I got performing on stage in the park in Hebden Bridge was the biggest I’ve ever had.
“There was fantastic bonding happening, on stage and off. We talked about everything: partners, siblings, kids, bodies, sex, ageing, Botox. When women come together, a kind of magic happens.”
Amelia Bullmore
plays Yvonne (guitar)
BBC / Drama Republic
Amelia Bullmore has worked with Sally Wainwright many times: Bullmore co-wrote and acted in Scott & Bailey as well as acting in Happy Valley and Gentleman Jack. When filming the latter, Wainwright asked if she remembered Rock Follies. “Of course I did! It turns out Sally and I were both obsessed with it. She said she was going to write something about women forming a band, but the point wasn’t them making the big time, it was about the doing.”
Bullmore has always loved music, but as a child she was “very bad at learning to play the piano”. If she ever thought of being in a band, it was “at the back, with a tambourine, not being Chrissie Hynde or Debbie Harry”. She took learning the guitar for Riot Women very seriously and got “a huge hit of pleasure” when she improved — but she was still anxious about performing as a band.
“We all learnt the two ARXX songs, Seeing Red and Riot Women, separately,” she explains. “When we finally played together, there was a huge release of euphoria. We did it! We often couldn’t sleep afterwards because of the adrenaline; it amazed me how long it took to metabolise a music day. It was such a high.”
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Before taking HRT, which helped with “sleep, confidence and sweating”, Bullmore says that filming could be tricky. “Having a hot flush in a corset and a bonnet was no fun. I used to feel trapped. I rarely have flushes now, but it was great to work with a largely female cast and crew, knowing they’d understand if I had to get a breath of air. We rehearsed, shot, ate, chatted, laughed together — it was like a camping holiday with great raconteurs!”
Authors
Amy Raphael
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