Our First Look at 'The Change' Season 2 Sees Linda Facing Consequences

Critically acclaimed Channel 4 comedy The Change arrived on BritBox last summer to relatively little fanfare. This isn't a huge surprise, given the glut of content we're asked to sift through daily, it's likely that many simply didn't hear enough about the show to wonder whether it was worth checking out. Now, as we enter a new year, it's time to fix that, because the series' second season is on its way.

The BAFTA-nominated comedy is particularly notable for its subject matter: Menopause. Not for the specifics or anything like that, mind, but the unique combination of emotions, fears, and triumphs that women in middle-age must face. Television, as a medium, tends to only value female stories if they involve pretty ingenues falling in love or sassy older women solving crimes in a picturesque village, so the fact that a show like The Change exists at all is something of a triumph. (We could use more of them, is what I'm saying.)

Multi-award-winning stand-up comedian, actor, and writer Bridget Christie (Ghosts) stars as Linda, a fiftysomething, working-class mother of two who undergoes something of an existential crisis when she realizes menopause is upon her. Packing up and setting of on the motorbike she hasn't ridden in several decades, she literally heads to thewoods to live deliberately. (Or, in the Forest of Dean, as it happens.) There, she encounters an array of bizarre locals who help her recalibrate her outlook on life and herself. 

The show was renewed for a second season earlier this year, which will see Linda forced to deal with the husband who's shown up to take her home, and face the question of what sort of life she wants to live.

Here's the Season 2 synopsis. 

At the start of series two, Linda has got some explaining to do. Faced with the repercussions of the lies she’s told the forest community, along with losing the Mother Tree, and the arrival of husband Steve who has come to bring her home, Linda's future in the forest looks uncertain. But she’s already come a long way since being mother/wife/homemaker Linda Jane Jenkins of Swindon, and her journey is far from over.  She may have only been Eel Queen for a day, but something’s changed in Linda which means she’s not done yet – in fact she’s only just started. But little does she realise what a huge impact this decision will have on the town…and Steve.

Alongside Christie, the ensemble cast from the series' first season returns, including Susan Lynch (Happy Valley) as Eel Sister Agnes; Tanya Moody (Rain Dogs) as DJ Joy; Liza Tarbuck (Upstart Crow) as Linda's domineering older sister Siobhan; Jim Howick (Here We Go) as The Verderer; Jerome Flynn (Game of Thrones) as Pig Man; Paul Whitehouse (Why DIdn't They Ask Evans?) as Tony; and Omid Djalili (His Dark Materials) as Linda's husband, Steve. The Day of the Jackal's Laura Checkley has joined the cast as Eel Sister Theresa. 

The first season of the offbeat menopause comedy came to America by way of BritBox, and it seems highly likely its second will do the same.

“Bridget has created something very special in The Change, with Linda and her ‘coming of age’ story with a twist," executive producer Morwenna Gordon said in a statement. "From stacking the dishwasher and timing her chores, to taking off on a Triumph, climbing trees and being crowned an Eel Queen, the show puts too-often invisible, middle-aged women squarely in the spotlight - in motorbike leathers and a headdress – and for that we are eternally grateful! So, we are delighted to be bringing it back...for a second series to let Linda continue her journey.”

The BAFTA and RTS-nominated comedy series is created and written by Christie, who also serves as an executive producer alongside Gordon and Nerys Evans. Lisa Mitchell is the producer. 

The Change Season 2 will premiere in the U.K. on Channel 4 in early 2025 before crossing the pond to America this year.