Joanna Scanlan gives put-upon women an awkwardness and humour that make their anger convincing. We rate her highly: Riot Women shows how much she can convey before the script starts telling us what we already understand.
Fi1m perspective
In Riot Women (2025), Joanna Scanlan’s Beth can be angry without losing her sense of humour. The middle-aged women forming a punk band in Sally Wainwright’s drama have reasons to complain, but Scanlan does not treat a grievance as a complete personality. We were moved by Beth because Scanlan makes the pressures on her feel substantial without turning her into someone we can only pity. Rosalie Craig’s Kitty brings disorderly energy and warmth alongside her. Together they are the strongest reason to stay with a series whose writing can explain rather too much.
The breakthrough was Terri Coverley in Armando Iannucci’s The Thick of It (2005–2012), where taking a character seriously and knowing when to be funny proved compatible skills. With Getting On (2009–2012), which she co-created, she was also making material rather than waiting to be offered it. Her writing partnership with Vicki Pepperdine matters to a career so often spent playing women described as ordinary. The lead role of Mary in After Love (2020) gave her restrained dramatic acting more space. We would resist treating that as a departure: the comedy already depended on believing that these people meant what they said.
The limits are clearer in Thea Sharrock’s Wicked Little Letters (2024), where Scanlan plays Ann. Her unofficial investigation over tea with Eileen Atkins and Lolly Adefope supplies some of the film’s warmth, though the scenes are familiar. Their company is a modest reason to watch a comedy whose central joke wears thin. Scanlan makes those scenes worth spending time with; she cannot make the mystery less obvious or persuade the film to pursue the sadder story it keeps avoiding.
There is a danger in repeatedly casting her as an ordinary woman: the role can become smaller than the actor’s ability to play it. Her wish for more forceful parts seems reasonable after Beth. Wainwright gives her anger enough room to remain funny and awkward, even when the script is less subtle than the performance. Start with Riot Women, and be prepared to forgive a few speeches for the performances around them.
Biography
Joanna Scanlan is a British actress and writer. She was born on 27 October 1961 in West Kirby, Merseyside, and studied at Queens' College, Cambridge.
On television she is known for roles in The Thick of It (2005–2012), Getting On (2009–2012), for which she received three BAFTA TV Award nominations including for writing, No Offence (2015–2018), The Larkins (2021) and Slow Horses (2022–). Her film credits include Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), Notes on a Scandal (2006), Bridget Jones's Baby (2016) and After Love (2020), for which she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She appears as Ann in Wicked Little Letters (2024) and as Beth in Riot Women (2025).
