BritBox Scoops Up Critically Acclaimed Comedy 'The Change'

if you watch a lot of TV, then you already know that stories about the middle-aged female experience are few and far between. Most shows tend to either focus on young women (girls experiencing traditional coming-of-age journies, romantic ingenues on the hunt for a perfect man) or older characters who occupy a vastly different stage of life (sassy grandmas, dowagers full of quick-witted wisdom, the nice old ladies who solve crimes 'round the village). The female characters who sit in the middle space between those two groups are given shockingly little attention and stories that spotlight the challenges specific to that time of life are vanishingly rare. 

This is what makes the upcoming BritBox comedy The Change so intriguing. A Channel 4 series that won fairly widespread critical acclaim in the U.K., it tackles a subject that many (particularly in this industry) find uncomfortable to acknowledge: Menopause. Now, the idea of a comedy about the so-called "change of life" is...let's just call it unexpected, but the series promises to unpack the unique tension between trauma and freedom that often categorizes this time of life. 

The Change stars stars multi-award-winning stand-up comedian-actor-writer-producer Bridget Christie (Ghosts) as Linda, a fiftysomething, working-class mother of two who experiences an existential crisis when she realizes menopause is upon her, and literally goes into the woods to live deliberately in the wilderness of the Forest of Dean. There, she encounters an array of bizarre locals who help her recalibrate her outlook on life and herself. And apparently, pigs are somehow involved.

Here's the series' description.

Linda , a 50-year-old menopausal, working-class married mother of two, experiences an existential crisis and leaves her family to return to her rural roots in the wilderness of the Forest of Dean. Setting off on her Triumph motorbike that she hasn’t ridden in 30 years, she begins an adventure to reclaim her lost identity and seek out a tree she climbed as a child. Isolated from the outside world, she meets a community that is both unsettling and intoxicating, including a pair of infamous eel-farming sisters and a mysterious man who lives in the woods with wild boar. Think Deliverance. With pigs.

Alongside Christie, the ensemble cast includes Susan Lynch (Happy Valley), Monica Dolan (The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe), Omid Djalili (His Dark Materials), Tanya Moodie (Rain Dogs), Jim Howick (Here We Go), Paul Whitehouse (Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?), Jerome Flynn (Game of Thrones), and Liza Tarbuck (Upstart Crow). 

Channel 4 has already renewed the show for a second season, which will see Linda face the repercussions of the events depicted in its first.

The Change is created and written by Christie, who also serves as an executive producer alongside Nerys Evans and Morwenna Gordon. Lisa Mitchell is the producer. 

All six episodes of The Change Season 1 will premiere on BritBox on Wednesday, August 1.