Bridget Christie in The Change. Picture: Channel 4
Must admit that I wasn’t initially up for a sitcom about menopause. The Change, Channel 4’s new sequence, written by and starring the award-winning actor, author and comic, Bridget Christie. Whereas it’s vital that everybody is lastly acknowledging this stage of a girl’s life, at 59-and-a-half, I really feel a bit, er, over it. After all, I’ve had phrases with myself. What number of occasions will we see attention-grabbing, midlife ladies on TV and movie, in principal character roles? OK, OK. Comfortable Valley, And Simply Like That, Mare of Easttown – issues are enhancing however we’re nonetheless outnumbered by males of their 40s, 50s and past. Anyhow. Preconceptions apart, I’m having fun with The Change.
The present is humorous and heat – and bizarre. I haven’t watched all of the episodes however it may possibly get a bit League of Gentleman at occasions (episode three, the village assembly). However, fortunately it doesn’t bang on about menopause, and the extra various kinds of middle-aged ladies we see on TV, the higher.
Bridget Christie performs Linda, a 50-year-old menopausal mum and retail employee with two teenage children and a clueless husband, Steve. Having totted up all of the minutes she’s spent doing home tasks and different stuff in a cupboard-full of notebooks ( ‘Intercourse with Steve: one minute 20 seconds), Linda takes her outdated motorcycle out of the storage (not a euphemism) and decides to reclaim the time she’s owed.
Taking off on a street journey, she finally ends up dwelling in a scuzzy caravan in a village within the Forest of Dean – that is the place it will get a bit Royston Vasey. Christie is supported by different nice comedy actors, together with: Paul Whitehouse, Tanya Moodie (Meg from Motherland), Susan Lynch (Killing Eve, Comfortable Valley) and Liza Tarbuck. And, there are snigger out loud moments, my favorite line thus far:
‘The Hulk is the one menopausal position mannequin within the historical past of TV and movie.’
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