A show about middle-aged women in a small West Yorkshire market town may not be where you’d expect to find a refreshing take on trans representation, but such is the case with Riot Women.
The series stars Joanna Scanlan, Lorraine Ashbourne, Rosalie Craig, Tamsin Greig and Amelia Bullmore as five women who form a punk-rock band for a local talent show. Along the way, they discover their experiences not only unite them but serve as inspiration for their music.
The series also features up-and-coming star Macy Seelochan, as Miranda, the daughter of Ashbourne’s character, Jess.
Miranda is trans but Riot Women‘s creator, Sally Wainwright, handles this in what still feels like a unique way in 2025 – by not referring to it at all.
“It felt incredible that they’d left it out of the script because Sally had just gone ‘Miranda’s identity doesn’t need to be a part of her storyline, she just is’,” Seelochan tells PinkNews following the start of the show. “We’re allowing a world where everyone around her accepts and embraces it.”
As it happens, the script Seelochan auditioned with did include “a couple of sentences” mentioning Miranda’s trans-ness but the “superfluous” lines were removed.
“Sally’s writing from Happy Valley to Gentleman Jack, all of those characters are so 3D and to have her write a trans character who’s this 3D and has a really exciting journey, I felt so blessed that this was my first series regular role. I couldn’t have asked for anything better,” the actress enthused.
Like everyone else, queer people want to be represented in the media authentically and truthfully, terms that sound sort of trite at this point considering the ongoing conversations around representation and what that actually looks like and means. For so long, queer narratives have often revolved around heavy and traumatic coming outs, transitions, attacks and/or abuse.
Which is why Riot Women is so refreshing.
Audiences are used to having a trans character labelled clearly as such, often by the world in which they live. To be at a point where a trans character is allowed to just live, is still pretty new.
“Shows like this are a part of pushing the world forward and pushing society forward,” Seelochan adds. “Someone like Miranda, this studious, helpful, caring, neurotic late teen can really help show a different side people may have never met.”
The significance of Miranda existing on a primetime BBC1 show, and what that can do to humanise trans people at a time when the community has a target on its back, is undeniable.
What It Feels Like For A Girl also aired on the BBC this year, again highlighting trans stories. It was very different to Riot Women, aimed more towards the LGBTQ+ community, and also on BBC3, with a younger audience in mind. However, as Seelochan points out, both are equally important.
“I’m so in awe of that show because it’s nice to have shows for our community as well but I definitely agree that Riot Women hits a completely different audience,” she says. “This show isn’t necessarily made for that community. Something really powerful is I don’t think [many] people know that a lot of medication menopausal women receive is the same exact medication trans women [take] during their medical transition.”
The show subtly draws the line between the middle-aged women centre stage and the trans community through references to hormone replacement therapy. It’s done in such a way that it doesn’t feel as if Wainwright is hitting viewers over the head with the point or shoe-horning it in to appear what some people would call woke.
“It’s such an incredible link,” Seelochan goes on to say. “For Sally to be so smart and to connect someone like Miranda with these women was incredible because that shared experience is now on primetime TV. I think it’s going to open so many people’s minds to things they didn’t know about before.”
Away from the screen, Seelochan has made a name for herself in plays such as Galatea, staged at the Brighton Festival, and maybe the queerest version of As You Like It to date at the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
The actress has written in the past about how both were opportunities for her to connect with characters over their own gender identities and journeys. When asked whether she sees film and TV or theatre as more evolved when it comes to representation, she diplomatically replies that “both are progressive in different ways”, although she qualifies that by saying on stage there’s more room for “experimentation” while screen roles are more dependent on writers creating characters such as Miranda.
Are we getting more of those characters, then? “I feel we’re moving towards more characters [who] are open to anyone playing them,” says Seelochan. “What’s exciting about someone like Miranda is she’s specifically a trans woman, her storyline gets to be coloured by that experience, even though it’s not mentioned. Me bringing my own experience has naturally influenced this character.”
Away from acting, Seelochan had what she described as a surreal moment earlier this year when, as a member of the vocal group Trans Voices, she provided backing for Kesha at Mighty Hoopla, in a rendition of “Praying.”
It turned out that the moment fitted into the performer’s New Year resolution to reconnect with her musical side, having studied music tech at college. After joining Trans Voices earlier this year, she received an email asking if she’d be up for the Hoopla gig.
“We had one rehearsal, met Kesha, we sang with her, then we all had a giggle and a cuddle backstage,” says Seelochan who seems to find it hard to believe it happened even now. “Getting the taste of the pop-star life while being in a show about a rock band… I don’t know, maybe there’s something in my future that’s leaning towards bringing the music back.”
New episodes of Riot Women air on BBC1 on Sundays at 9pm. All episodes are available on the iPlayer.
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