“How do I love thee, Bridget Christie? Let me count the ways,” says Kayleigh, who sometimes still dreams about the comedian’s goth-cowboy ensemble from Taskmaster. “One of those prodigious talents that manages to tackle heavy topics with her own deft, uniquely absurdist style of humour, it stands to reason that Christie’s critically acclaimed series The Change does much the same.
“Embarrassingly, this one flew under my radar at first (although, to be fair to Past Me, I’d only just given birth and was too exhausted to meaningfully engage with anything). But when I finally caught up with the Channel 4 series, I fell hard for its excellent take on menopause – not least because, quoting Bridget’s character Linda, ‘The Hulk is the only menopausal role model in the history of TV and film’ so far.
“For those yet to tune in, the premise is simple: Linda, dismayed by the onset of ‘change’, hops on her old Triumph motorbike and sets off on a pilgrimage to reclaim the 3 million minutes she feels she’s wasted on emotional labour. When she winds up living in a caravan in the Forest of Dean, though, things get wonderfully weird – in a spiritualistic, pagan-esque, Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights video kind of way… and not least of all because of the bizarre locals and their annual Eel Festival.
“It’s the perfect time to catch up on The Change if you’ve yet to embrace its blistering takedown of modern gender norms and the societal expectations thrust upon women, as you’ll be able to jump from that delicious cliffhanger finale straight into the show’s much-anticipated second season. Christie will be joined once again by a veritable Who’s Who of British TV greats, including Susan Lynch, Tanya Moody, Liza Tarbuck, Jim Howick, Jerome Flynn, Paul Whitehouse and Omid Djalili, among others. And, once again, it promises to blend unpredictable twists and sharp social critiques with audacious humour and the faintest folk horror vibes.
“Fair warning, though: it will make you want to run away to the forest as soon as you possibly can.” The Change season 2 will premiere on Channel 4 on Tuesday 25 March 25. You can watch the first season via catch-up now.
