Sally Wainwright makes room for women to be angry, funny and difficult, and we value the care she gives their performances. Her writing is strongest when she resists explaining what the actors have already made clear.
Fi1m perspective
In Riot Women (2025), five middle-aged women form a punk band while the demands of caring for other people carry on. Wainwright gives their irritation time to become funny, without making the women ridiculous for having had enough. We laughed at that exasperation because the comedy recognises how much is being asked of them. Menopause and being overlooked are daily concerns here, not subjects brought in for a passing joke. It is work we recommend, particularly for Joanna Scanlan and Rosalie Craig.
The precision of her dialogue was developed in radio and soaps, but her reputation should not stop at the writing. After the breakthrough of Unforgiven (2009), she also directed episodes of Happy Valley (2014–2023), with its flawed, resilient women and northern rural setting. To Walk Invisible (2016), her feature-length directorial debut about the Brontë sisters, and four episodes of Gentleman Jack (2019–2022) extended that work. Taking charge of tone and performances is a sensible development for someone whose characters can be funny while their circumstances remain grim.
In Riot Women, which she directs with Amanda Brotchie, the changes between humour and distress usually feel right. The women do not have to finish enjoying themselves before another difficulty arrives, and at its strongest the direction gives the performers room to make each trouble personal. Scanlan and Craig are particularly good reasons to stay with a programme that risks giving its characters more problems than it can properly examine. We value that patience with the actors, though the busy mixture of music and personal troubles sometimes needs more space.
The weaker passages come when Wainwright will not let those performances make the point unaided. Conversations about women being overlooked can turn into lectures, while the thinly drawn men make the exchanges too predictable. More particular men would give the women something less obvious to answer, and would spare the actors the task of making a foregone conclusion sound like conversation. Start with Riot Women for the humour and the performances, and forgive the occasional lecture.
Biography
Sally Wainwright is an English television writer, producer and director. Born in 1963 in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, she began her career writing for the radio serial The Archers and the soap operas Emmerdale and Coronation Street in the 1990s.
Her first original drama series was At Home with the Braithwaites (2000–2003). She is known for creating and writing Scott & Bailey (2011–2016), Last Tango in Halifax (2012–2020), Happy Valley (2014–2023) and Gentleman Jack (2019–2022), many of which are set in Yorkshire and feature female leads. Wainwright has also directed episodes of several of her series. She wrote and directed the 2025 series Riot Women.
Wainwright was appointed OBE in 2020 for services to writing and television. Last Tango in Halifax and Happy Valley each won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Drama Series.
