What Do We Know About Riot Women Series 2?

If you missed Riot Women in October, well done: it was all anyone could talk about for a few weeks, from social media gushing and thinkpiece newsletters to news features and watercooler conversations. And rightly so: drawing together five menopausal women, the Hebden Bridge-set drama managed to squeeze everything from divorce and dementia to mental health and misogyny into its six gripping episodes.

Penned by Happy Valley creator Sally Wainwright, it was always destined to be a hit. And with a finale cliffhanger keeping us wanting more, we were very pleased to see Riot Women had been renewed by the BBC for a second series last week. Here’s everything we know so far.

Riot Women draws together five menopausal women to start a punk band. (Joanna Scanlan as Beth, Tamsin Greig as Holly, Rosalie Craig as Kitty & Amelia Bullmore as Yvonne in Riot Women © BBC/Drama Republic/Helen Williams)

Riot Women Series 2: Plot, Cast, Release Date & More

Sharp, shocking and laugh-out-loud funny, Sally Wainwright packed a lot into her first six episodes of Riot Women: we met our band members – teacher Beth (Joanna Scanlan), police officer Holly (Tamsin Greig), pub landlady Jess (Lorraine Ashbourne), midwife Yvonne (Amelia Bullmore) and shoplifting freeloader Kitty (Rosalie Craig) – and saw how, as their multifaceted lives were crumbling apart, their amateur punk rock band could glue them together.

As lead star Rosalie Craig put it in her interview with C&TH: ‘Riot Women is a hard-hitting, beautifully crafted, emotionally engaging and dramatically rich drama written by national treasure Sally Wainwright. It focuses on five women who put together a punk band to win a local talent contest. They juggle demanding jobs, grown-up children, ageing parents, absent husbands and the menopause as the band becomes a catalyst for change in their lives.’

The series deals with a whole host of dark themes, but one striking relationship sits at the core: that between the suicidal, divorced empty nester Beth and the wayward Kitty. Despite their wildly different backgrounds and gap in ages, the duo bond over a love of music, and ultimately find out they have a lot more in common than they once thought. Including (spoiler alert) Beth’s adopted son Tom (Jonny Green), with Kitty turning out to be his birth mother.

And this is where that cliffhanger comes in: across series 1, we come to learn that Kitty gave birth to Tom at just 12 years old after being raped by three men, so-called friends of her gangland father, Keith. Played by none other than Jonathan Pryce, Keith is estranged from Kitty and serving time in prison after years ruling the Eckersley crime family, notorious in the North West.

At the end of series 1, Kitty (Craig) receives a game changing phone call from her father. (© BBC/Drama Republic/Helen Williams)

What Will Happen In Series 2?

The reunion between Kitty and Keith is crucial to Riot Women series 2. During series 1, Kitty receives a phone call telling her that her father has been extradited from Morocco and is now incarcerated in a more local prison, but when she visits him and tells him what happened to her, he can’t remember the names of the perpetrators. Pinning them down is important for two reasons: Kitty wants revenge on them for ruining her life (through the criminal justice system or other means, she is yet to decide), and one is the biological father of Tom. In fact, there is irrefutable evidence of rape against whoever turns out to be Tom’s father, as he had sex with a 12-year-old.

Flash forward to the finale, and after an exuberant performance from the Riot Women at a local music festival, Kitty receives a call from her father, who has three names on his lips: John Sykes, who was stabbed and killed more than 15 years ago; Eamon Conway, who is alive and lives in Ovenden; and Kevin Hamer, who turned out to be an undercover cop. His true identity? Detective chief superintendent David Aspinall, now retired. Keith has an address for him, and asks his daughter if she has decided what she wants to do, his voice echoing through the phone as the music crescendoes and Kitty’s face appears more shocked, before the screen turns to black.

Riot Women reveals the misogyny permeating the police force. (Taj Atwal & Tamsin Greig on set with Sally Wainwright © BBC/Drama Republic Ltd)

This is a callback to the violent misogyny we see rumbling through the local police via Holly and Nisha’s (Taj Atwall) plots. The duo were policing partners before Holly retired, and when she did Nisha found herself more alone than ever within a toxically misogynistic culture. This culminated in Nisha being attacked by a gang of men at a protest, before being found by fellow cop Rudy (Ben Batt). Finding her bloody and assaulted and thinking her unconscious, rather than help Nisha, Rudy took photos of her and further injured her. But from her hospital bed Nisha reveals to Holly that she remembers the whole ordeal. Rather than pursue justice, however, Nisha blames Holly for meddling.

As Kitty discovers institutionalised misogyny in the police, it seems like these two plots could converge in Riot Women series 2. Elsewhere we’re sure to delve back into Beth and Tom’s relationship as well as their new lives with Kitty in the picture, while Jess’s unconventional and larger-than-ever family navigates new territory all living under the pub roof, and Holly and Yvonne continue to care for their ailing mother.

Beth’s adopted son Tom (Jonny Green, left) struggles to come to terms with the identity of his birth mother. (© BBC/Drama Republic)

The BBC is yet to confirm exactly what will happen in the second series, but creator-writer-director-producer Wainwright has teased: ‘Oh, this is where the fun really starts! We’ve all been so deeply moved by the huge, overwhelming, joyous, emotional response to series one, and now we’re able to take the Riot Women extravaganza onto the next level! We hope you’ll all join us on the series two rollercoaster!’

Riot Women’s executive producer Roanna Benn adds how the team has been ‘bowled over by how hugely audiences have loved and resonated with Sally’s brilliant characters and stories and by the rightful praise for the phenomenal actors who have each made their character so much their own’.

‘We have so many stories yet to tell for them and we cannot wait to get started,’ Benn adds. And with series 1 setting the scene with a stellar ensemble cast of characters, there are plenty of directions the show could move in.

We expect our core Riot Women to return for series 2. (Kitty Eckersley (ROSALIE CRAIG), Jess Burchill (LORRAINE ASHBOURNE), Beth Thornton (JOANNA SCANLAN), Yvonne Vaux (AMELIA BULLMORE), Holly Gaskell (TAMSIN GREIG) in Riot Women © BBC/Drama Republic Ltd.)

The Cast

We expect our full core cast to return for Riot Women series 2, plus new actors to play Kitty’s living nemeses Eamon Conway and detective chief superintendent David Aspinall. We may also see expanded roles for characters that debuted in series 1, including Keith (Pryce), the villainous Rudy (Batt) – who we hope will get his comeuppance – as well as Jess’s daughters Chloe (Shannon Lavelle) and Miranda (Macy Seelochan).

The full cast we expect to return is as follows:

• Joanna Scanlan as Beth Thornton
• Lorraine Ashbourne as Jess Burchill
• Rosalie Craig as Kitty Eckersley
• Tamsin Greig as Holly Gaskell
• Amelia Bullmore as Yvonne Vaux
• Jonny Green as Tom Thornton, Beth’s son
• Ellise Chappell as Fearne, Tom’s wife
• Jonathan Pryce as Keith Eckersley, Kitty’s father
• Taj Atwal as Nisha Lal
• Ben Batt as Rudy
• Chandeep Uppal as Kam
• Shannon Lavelle as Chloe, Jess’ eldest daughter
• Natalia Tena as Inez, Jess’ girlfriend and Jess’ former rival
• Macy Seelochan as Miranda, Jess’ daughter
• Peter Davison as Graham, Fearne’s father
• Claire Skinner as Tricia, Fearne’s mother
• Sue Johnston as Aunt Mary
• Anne Reid as Nancy Gaskell

Beth Thornton (JOANNA SCANLAN), Jess Burchill (LORRAINE ASHBOURNE), Yvonne Vaux (AMELIA BULLMORE), Kitty Eckerson (ROSALIE CRAIG), Holly Gaskell (TAMSIN GREIG), Nisha Lal (TAJ ATWAL), & Kam Lal (CHANDEEP UPPAL) in Riot Women. (© BBC/Drama Republic Ltd.)

Release Date

No official news just yet on when Riot Women series 2 will be released, but our fingers are crossed that it will premiere before the end of 2026. Stay tuned for more.

All six episodes of Riot Women are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

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