The Change
The Change: Bridget Christie’s new Channel 4 series is a menopausal romcom, and we’re sold
Who is she? What is she? Is this it? Say hello to The Change, an unmissable six-part series coming to Channel 4.
Written by Kayleigh Dray in Stylist Magazine on June 15th, 2023
Accelerating past 50 … Bridget Christie as Linda in The Change. Photograph: Channel 4
I can count on one hand the number of menopausal women I’ve seen on screen. They are:
- Samantha Jones sweating profusely and slathering herself in hormonal cream in Sex And The City 2
- Patsy and Edina, in Ab Fab, at that disastrous Menopause Anonymous meeting
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding’s Aunt Voula talking about menopause and the “hormonees”
- Kristin Scott Thomas’s epic menopause speech in Fleabag
- Davina McCall’s documentary about the menopause
That’s it. That’s the lot. Oh sure, there have been instantly forgettable scenes of women standing too close to refrigerators, the odd murmur or two about “the change of life”, and several loaded comments about fading libidos. As a rule, though, menopause doesn’t usually take the spotlight in films and TV shows – despite the fact that almost every woman on the planet will go through it at some point.
Enter stage left, then, Bridget Christie’s new Channel 4 romcom series.
Watch the trailer for The Change below:
Intrigued? Here’s what you need to know.
What is The Change about?
The Change is a comedy drama about Linda, a 50-year-old, married, working-class, mother-of-two who is convinced she has early onset dementia after forgetting what a shoe is called.
Terrified, she visits her GP, only to be informed that she’s actually going through the menopause. After realising how much time she’s spent doing invisible work for those around her (3.5 million minutes, if you’re wondering), she jumps on her dusty old motorbike and speeds off to the Forest of Dean in a bid to reclaim her identity.
When she runs into a mysterious man who lives in the woods with the wild boar, however, all her plans of finding the tree she once climbed as a child go out the window.
Cue the magic.
Who stars in The Change?
While Christie takes the lead as Linda, she’s joined by a bevy of talented actors, including Game Of Thrones’s Jerome Flynn, Paul Whitehouse, Susan Lynch and Omid Djalili.
The cast is rounded out nicely by Liza Tarbuck, Jim Howick, Monica Dolan, and Tanya Moodie.
What are people saying about The Change?
“Menopause is huge,” says Christie, who also wrote and produced the series. “Every single person on the planet will, by association, be affected by it, whether it’s your mother, wife, daughter, sister, niece, auntie, whoever, and so it seems absurd we’re not seeing many female characters going through it.
“A huge part of us has been erased.”
Explaining how her show aims to fill this void, Christie continues: “Our protagonist is a menopausal woman who takes back control of her life and goes off on a journey of self-discovery. We are seeing more and more older women in lead roles and that’s obviously fantastic but there’s still a way to go – but the menopause is never written into those storylines. We don’t often see them having symptoms or talking to other female characters or their partners or work colleagues about it. 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.”
When and where can we watch The Change?
The first episode of The Change drops at 10pm on Wednesday 21 June via Channel 4.
Will you be watching?
Written by Kayleigh Dray in Stylist Magazine on 15th June 2023.
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