Bridget Christie lands Channel 4 menopause comedy The Change
- Bridget Christie writes and stars as a middle-aged mother having an existential crisis in The Change
- The six-part Channel 4 comedy drama is billed as "Shirley Valentine meets Deliverance. With pigs"
- Drawing from Christie's own life, the series shoots in the Forest of Dean later this year
Bridget Christie is making a Channel 4 comedy drama about the menopause described as "Shirley Valentine meets Deliverance. With pigs", British Comedy Guide can exclusively reveal.
The former Edinburgh Comedy Award-winner has created, writes, executive produces and stars in loosely autobiographical six-part series The Change, which will shoot in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire later this year.
She plays Linda, a 50-year-old, working-class, married mother-of-two having an existential crisis.
Convinced she's got early onset dementia after forgetting what a shoe is called, Linda's GP informs her it is, in fact, the menopause. Feeling invigorated and empowered by this information, Linda decides to claw back some of the time she's spent doing "invisible work" over the years (not all 3.5 million minutes, just 131,500 of them) to do something for herself ... for a change.
Dusting off her old Triumph motorbike that she hasn't ridden in 30 years, Linda sets off alone to the spectacular wilderness of The Forest of Dean - in search of an identity, a purpose, and tree she climbed as a child. Along the way she meets an array of eccentric locals, including the infamous Eel Sisters, an angry local radio presenter and a mysterious man who lives in the woods with the wild boar. What could possibly go wrong?
"I've got a Channel 4 series?" said Christie "Are you joking? I'm sorry I don't know anything about this. Unless I've forgotten? I am having terrible trouble remembering things at the moment because of the menopause. What's it about?"
Further cast and the director for the series have yet to be announced. Produced by Lisa Mitchell (Horrible Histories, The Mimic) for Expectation Entertainment (Alma's Not Normal, Intelligence), The Change's commission follows a successful non-broadcast pilot shot in February last year, directed by Jamie Jay Johnson (Fresh Meat, Cold Feet).
Christie who was born and brought up in Gloucester and was in a biker gang in her teens, is currently touring the stand-up show Who Am I? about her experience of the menopause. She has been developing a narrative comedy for Channel 4 since at least 2016, initially focused on an "outsider" central character who moves back to the city to live with her father.
The Forest of Dean, in the west of Gloucestershire, was where she married fellow comic Stewart Lee. And speaking to the Daily Telegraph in 2020, she praised the novel Shelter by Sarah Franklin, set in the forest in 1944, about a young woman who escapes her bombed-out city and finds refuge in the Women's Timber Corps, calling it "deeply profound and moving", as well as "laugh-out-loud funny".
The Change was commissioned by Fiona McDermott, Channel 4 head of comedy and Laura Riseam, commissioning executive for comedy. Christie executive produces alongside Nerys Evans and Morwenna Gordon.
"Bridget pitched the show with the tag line 'Shirley Valentine meets Deliverance. With Pigs'" said McDermott. "She had us at pigs. We're so thrilled to be working with her and Expectation and be able to hero a woman like Linda at the centre of a show that so brilliantly tackles big themes - feminism, health, identity, class and the natural world - but wraps them up with Bridget's signature charm, curiosity and comic expertise. It's a timely show from a comic at the height of her powers."
Executive producing for Expectation, Gordon added: "We couldn't be more excited to work with Bridget on channelling her brilliant comic voice into a narrative comedy. She's putting the menopause at the heart of the story, against the beautiful, magical and at times unsettling backdrop of The Forest of Dean, and we've no doubt The Change will be a real treat for Channel 4 viewers."
The comic previously made The Bridget Christie Television Programme with Expectation for Channel 4 in 2018. Directed by Al Campbell (Man Down, Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe), the non-broadcast pilot illustrated her stand-up routines with thematically-related sketches shot on location.
Christie's tour, Who Am I?, continues on 26th April at the Leicester Square Theatre in London. She is also appearing as part of a Ukraine benefit gig at the same venue on March 24th.