As Sally Wainwright returns to the BBC with her fiery new drama, Riot Women, cast member Taj Atwal hopes women everywhere feel ‘seen and heard’.
The Happy Valley creator’s hard-hitting series follows a group of middle-aged women, made to feel invisible by society, who fuel their rage by forming a punk rock band.
Enter Line of Duty alum Taj, 37, who is in familiar territory as Nisha, a South Asian police officer.
Her character joins the unconventional band as a backup singer while navigating her own troubles, including workplace harassment, her sexuality, and her broader identity in modern-day England.
‘I have, for about a decade, wanted to work with Sally Wainwright, and I just couldn’t get in the room,’ Taj told Metro about the serendipitous path that led to her landing a bespoke role in her latest drama.
After missing one another at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year, in February, while down with a cold, the script for Riot Women landed in her inbox – and she was ready to do whatever it took to get the job.
‘At the end of [our] call, my agent said: “Sally’s a massive fan of yours, and she’s offered you this role.” I was so unwell at the time, I couldn’t even cry, but I wanted to,’ she recalled.
The entire show is an ode to women who are all too often overlooked and downtrodden, not to dole out pity but to prove their sheer power when you give them a mic and… let them scream.
Crucially, Riot Women doesn’t try to underplay the depth of pain these women hold.
Right off the bat, we are confronted with themes around suicide and self-harm through characters like Beth (Joanna Scanlan), who has been driven to extreme measures by her loneliness or Kitty (Rosalie Craig), who has been knocked down one too many times.
As for Nisha, after joining the show, Taj had one request of Sally: making Nisha a lesbian, a suggestion the acclaimed showrunner was ‘really open to’.
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‘We never get to see very many South Asian lesbians on screen. I can’t really think of any story off the top of my head, not in the UK, maybe in America.
‘So I had actually requested that just so those characters get to be portrayed on screen and reflected back. I hope I do it truthfully,’ she shared.
Reflecting on the state of female South Asian representation on screen as a whole, she admitted her concerns that we’re ‘going backwards’.
‘[There are] all these brilliant women who actually existed and made a massive contribution to society, and I feel like those stories have been left in favour of slightly more fictional stories where it’s still centred around [the woman] having trouble with her in-laws.
‘There seems to be another influx of that coming back around again that I’ve been reading and going, “Oh, we’ve taken a slight step back here.”
‘So I’m always reaching for stories that are empowering. I’ve had a real run of it recently, and I’m so grateful for that, but that comes at a cost of saying no to a lot of other stuff.’
As the political and social temperament around LGBTQ+ and women’s rights takes a turn in countries like the US and UK, according to Taj, Sally’s ‘genius’ writing rings eerily true for the current moment.
‘I felt like what was happening globally at the time was reflected in my storyline and that, to me, showed the power of Sally’s writing [and] how ahead she is in reflecting society in her work.
‘It was a little bit overwhelming at times because you can’t escape what was happening globally, and then it’s also happening within the storyline.
‘But we had such a strong support network with each other, and actually, it reinforced in me why it’s so important to create work like this. For people to feel seen and heard,’ she explained.
Surrounded by veterans of the industry, Taj soaked up the ‘life wisdom’ present on set.
She explained: ‘I was going through some life [stuff], and it was so beautiful going on to set and having them to lean on, because they had already experienced all the things that I was experiencing as a woman in her 30s.
‘Joanna Scanlon had a wealth of wisdom and life experience that she could impart to me.
‘When we were all in the car together going to set, we’d play games or just have a laugh and really got to bond outside of work. I really hope that reflects in our dynamic and relationships on screen.’
Riot Women is not the only show about female rage that Taj has joined. She is also set to star in the next season of Ella Purnell’s Sweetpea, about a local journalist, Rhiannon, who gets a taste for vengeful murder.
‘She’s a tour-de-force,’ Taj teased about her character, who joins as Rhiannon’s new boss at the paper and quickly ‘ruffles a few feathers’.
Ever booked and busy, the actor will also reprise her role as Cherry in Daddy Issues, the chaotic best friend of lead character Gemma (portrayed by Aimee Lou Wood).
Promising viewers will see Cherry in a ‘different light’ this season as her and Gemma’s friendship takes some ups and downs, she also shared her enthusiasm for future seasons.
‘We want to do this show for as many years as possible, because we have so many more story ideas. Aimee and I were thinking of loads of escapades that Gemma and Cherry could go on that we’ve been trying to pitch to [creator] Danielle [Ward].
‘I’m just so glad that audiences are behind us and want to see more of that.’
And, although there’s nothing in the pipeline right now, she didn’t discount a return to one of her best-known roles as PC Tatleen Sohota in Line of Duty, which is set to return for a seventh season.
On leaving the role after season five in 2019, she said: ‘I just did the job and let it go and put it out in the world – onto the next thing. It’s a real honour and privilege to be a part of something so iconic.’
Before confirming that technically the door is always open: ‘Maybe, I don’t see why not. She was still alive.’
Riot Women airs at 9pm tonight. It is available to stream on BBC iPlayer now.
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