Menopause and a mid-life crisis the focus of new TV comedy drama

WHEN 50-year-old mum Linda discovers she’s going through the menopause, she heads out on a journey of self-discovery aboard her old Triumph motorbike, which she hasn’t ridden for 30 years.

That is the theme of a new six-part comedy drama called The Change which starts on Channel 4 on Wednesday, June 21 at 10pm.

Comedian and and writer Bridget Christie, who has been winning awards for her radio work in the UK for years - stars as Linda in a series she created and wrote. Her co-stars include Liza Tarbuck and Paul Whitehouse.

As mum Linda leaves behind her hapless husband to take care of their kids, she is seeking i an identity, a purpose, and ends up getting to know some rather eccentric characters in the Forest of Dean.

“I wanted to create a show with an ordinary, relatable story at its heart, but place it in an extraordinary setting,” explains Christie. “To capture the mundanity of our day-to-day lives, but also the magic and beauty all around us that we miss because we’re too busy to notice.

So, we have two contrasting worlds - one of grey, suburban domesticity and the other of vivid, rural community life.

Menopause, the trigger for Linda’s life-affirming trip, is a subject Christie addressed in her most recent stand-up show, Who Am I?, which, offering up a playful and rich dissection, was met with critical acclaim.

She hopes The Change will kick-start some much-needed conversations.

“We are seeing more and more older women in lead roles and that’s obviously fantastic, but there’s still a way to go - the menopause is never written into those storylines,” Christie says.

“We don’t often see them having symptoms or talking to other female characters or their partners or work colleagues about it,” she points out. 

So, while it’s great we’re seeing more and more older women taking these central parts, a big part of them has been erased.

“The menopause is still this invisible thing on screen, and when it is written into a storyline, it’s not usually done as explicitly as it is here, where it’s at the heart of the story.”

How much did her own life experience feed into the writing?

“I had the same menopause symptoms as Linda but in terms of my own life, not much of it bled into the show,” she admits.

“I did go to the Forest of Dean as a child, I do ride a motorbike and I do have two children, but all my sisters are lovely and I have a job that I love and find very fulfilling.”