Sally Wainwright has done it again. After bringing us iconic British TV fare like Happy Valley and Gentlemen Jack, her new offering is as bingeable and just as addictive and just as quintessentially British. In the best way possible, of course.
Her new BBC drama Riot Women follows five women who are all dealing with the ups and downs of the rollercoaster of menopause. Naturally, they find a solution, of sorts, by forming their own rock back. It’s empowering, hilarious, invigorating stuff. And it’s also set against a pretty idyllic backdrop. So where was Riot Women filmed?
PHOTOGRAPHER:,Helen Williams
The show sets the scene in the Calderdale area of West Yorkshire where Wainwright grew up. However, she almost chose another place as her location.
“I was worried about getting typecast by setting everything in Yorkshire,” she told Living North. “It’s a story that could’ve happened anywhere, and I did wonder about setting it in the village where I live immediately in the Cotswolds, but it just didn’t feel right. The kind of women I know in my village probably wouldn’t do this, whereas my friends who I went to school with (who still live up in the Calder Valley)… I could kind of imagine them doing it in the spirit of having fun and for a good cause.”
And so, she landed on the “unusually beautiful town” of Hebden Bridge. “Not least because I just love filming there,” she said. “It’s got that fantastic landscape around it. It’s in the bottom of the valley and it’s surrounded by hills, and the town itself is just so colourful and so interesting. Everywhere you look, it has interesting nooks and crannies. I really wanted it to feel characterful, and like these women really live there – it’s their landscape and their culture. I think sense of place is really important in television.”
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