Riot Women's Joanna Scanlan had to 'go back to the drawing board' and embrace 'method acting' to deliver creator's music-making vision

Every so often a show comes along that really grips the nations’ imaginations and speaks to a shared experience in a way we couldn’t have imagined. Riot Women is surely one of these gems and given it’s written by the superbly talented Sally Wainwright, the woman behind Happy Valley, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised.

The BBC series follows five menopausal women who form a punk band in a tale of female friendship and empowerment. Sally’s Riot Women inspiration couldn’t be more relatable and she had a clear vision - as revealed recently by star Joanna Scanlan.

She plays one of the five, Beth Thornton, and opened up to This Morning’s Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond about the true meaning of Riot Women and how the lead actors actually learnt to play instruments to give it an authentic feel.

"It’s about music, this bunch of women, who all for different reasons have reached that point, suddenly start making music. And the making of music, the writing, the composing, the playing and the singing - and they’re not great at it - you know, this isn’t X-Factor, Dermot, it’s about a bunch of people getting together and expressing themselves," Joanna said.

Prompted by Alison remarking about the "method acting" element, the actor shared that Sally had wanted all of them - Joanna, Rosalie Craig, Amelia Bullmore, Lorraine Ashbourne and Tamsin Greig to play. The Riot Women creator even wanted to record the music live!

The only problem was, "none" of them played, but the cast didn’t let this stop them. Rosalie plays the band’s vocalist Kitty Eckersley and Joanna described her as a "fabulous singer", making it "slightly easier for her" than her co-stars.

"But then at the same time she was being asked to change her voice from being musical theatre, which is what she generally does, to this, you know, shouty, wild sound," Joanna added. "And that was pretty tough for her too. But the rest of us, I mean, I haven’t played keyboards since I was six and I decided it wasn’t for me and had to go back to the drawing board and start again."

Asked how difficult it was to try and pick up this skill again so many years later, she pondered over her answer and eventually admitted she’s "torn" about it.

Joanna explained, "I want to say on the one hand it’s really, really difficult. And on the other hand once you get it, it feels much easier than you imagined it would. So it’s, like everything, practice."

Their commitment to delivering a believable musical as well as acting performance is astounding and the revelations from Joanna have brought Riot Women even more admiration from fans.

"I love it even more now that I know Sally’s commitment to the authenticity of the music….and what a great thing for these actors….to learn how to play an instrument. I’d love that!" one person commented alongside This Morning’s clip of the interview.

"This is an absolutely fantastic series to watch. A must see for all women going through the menopause," another declared, whilst someone else added, "It's never too late to learn to play an instrument, I've been teaching the harp to retired people for years, it opens up a whole world they never knew existed".

The consensus amongst many fans is that Riot Women and its portrayal of these women and their experiences make them feel "seen". This would no doubt still be the case had the music been a sound effect, given the quality of the writing and acting.

However, there’s something so powerful about the cast coming together in a manner akin to their characters and bringing Riot Women’s music to life.