I am having fun with The Change — That’s Not My Age

Bridget Christie in The Change. Picture: Channel 4

Need to 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 essential that everybody is lastly acknowledging this stage of a lady’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 can we see fascinating, midlife ladies on TV and movie, in primary character roles? OK, OK. Joyful Valley, And Simply Like That, Mare of Easttown – issues are bettering 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 could 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 housekeeping and different stuff in a cupboard-full of notebooks ( ‘Intercourse with Steve: one minute 20 seconds), Linda takes her previous bike out of the storage (not a euphemism) and decides to reclaim the time she’s owed.

Taking off on a highway 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, Joyful Valley) and Liza Tarbuck. And, there are giggle 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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