Sally Wainwright on Riot Women, Identity Theft of Menopause, and Writing Real Female Characters

unPAUSED with Dr. Mary Claire Haver

Mary Claire Media, LLC

Medicine, Health & Fitness, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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, her commitment to portraying authentic female characters who carry grief, desire, sexuality, rage, and resilience in bodies that reflect actual lived experience, and how brain fog, joylessness, and depression led her to finally try hormone replacement therapy after initially believing outdated myths about breast cancer risk, and how that decision transformed her wellbeing. Dr. Haver and Sally discuss the critical importance of naming menopause symptoms, from the devastating loss of motivation and confidence that can accompany hormonal changes to the sandwich generation pressures of dementia care for aging parents while raising teenagers. The episode examines why female stories, particularly those featuring women over 50, face funding challenges in entertainment, how male writers have historically constructed female characters through the male gaze, and why Sally believes women are more heroic and emotionally articulate than men. They explore the revolutionary aspects of Riot Women, including its honest portrayal of sexual health, libido changes, medical gaslighting, and the transformative power of HRT, rarely if ever depicted on screen with such nuance and optimism. Sally discusses audience response to the series, including an unprecedented volume of thank-you letters to the BBC from viewers who felt seen for the first time, men's surprising embrace of the show despite its focus on female experience, and a handful of critics who complained about the absence of "nice men" despite the show's ensemble of complex, flawed characters of all genders. This conversation offers validation for anyone navigating the physical and emotional challenges of perimenopause and menopause, inspiration for creative midlife reinvention, and hope that entertainment is finally beginning to tell the truth about women's lives with the honesty, ferocity, humor, tenderness, and rage they deserve. Guest links: Sally Wainwright (Instagram) Sally Wainwright (IMDB) Articles Menopausal Hormone Therapy and the Breast: A Review of Clinical Studies (Breast Care) Anhedonia: A Concept Analysis (Archives of Psychiatric Nursing) Other Resources Primary Ovarian Insufficiency in Adolescents and Young Women (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) Riot Women (BBC) Clips from Riot Women: 251105_RiotWomen_Ep1_Clip_Satisfaction_Bug.mp4 251105_RiotWomen_Ep1_Clip_WithAttitude_Bug.mp4 251105_RiotWomen_Ep1_Clip_RiotWomen_Bug.mp4 251105_RiotWomen_Ep1_Clip_OneMenopausalWomanToAnother_Bug.mp4 251105_RiotWomen_Ep1_Clip_ForTheRefugees_Bug.mp4 Books: “The New Perimenopause,”⁠ by Dr. Mary Claire Haver ⁠"The New Menopause"⁠ by Dr. Mary Claire Haver For full show notes, please click here. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	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.
0:25.3	Brave women. Women breaking rules. Women who don't tidy up their emotions for anyone.
0:31.3	Sally Wainwright is the creator and producer behind some of the most acclaimed British television
0:36.5	dramas in the last 20 years.
0:38.5	Happy Valley, Gentleman Jack, Last Tango in Halifax, Scott and Bailey, and Unforgiven.
0:44.5	Her stories introduce us to characters who have lived entire lives before we ever meet them.
0:50.8	Women who carry grief, desire, sexuality, rage, intelligence, love, courage, exhaustion, trauma, and resilience in bodies that reflect actual lived experience.
1:02.0	Now, Sally has a new six-episode BBC Brit Box drama called Riot Women.
1:09.0	It's a series about a group of five women in midlife
1:12.9	who escaped their complicated lives,
1:15.2	filled with caring for kids and ailing parents
1:18.5	and dealing with menopause by forming a rock band.
1:22.2	I just finished watching it, and I was hooked within minutes.
1:27.0	I cried in the first 10. I laughed
1:29.2	hysterically in the next 10. She hits so many of the issues I hear from women every single day,
1:35.4	in my clinic, in my DMs, and in their whispered questions and late night fears, body changes.
1:43.5	Aging parents, loneliness, isolation, mental health shifts,
1:49.0	feeling invisible, the emotional free fall of midlife that no one prepares us for. These characters
1:55.3	are multidimensional, complicated women dealing with the issues my patients walk into my clinic carrying every day.
2:02.7	And Sally puts all of it on screen with honesty, ferocity, and humor.
2:08.0	The tenderness, the rage, the absurdity, and the heartbreak.
2:12.4	It feels like someone in entertainment is finally telling the truth.
	...

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