Did no one think to cast standup Bridget Christie in the upcoming Barbie movie? If it’s true, as Christie asserts, that “The Hulk is the only menopausal role model in the history of TV and film”, then having Christie play Menopausal Barbie alongside Issa Rae as President Barbie and Nicola Coughlan as Diplomat Barbie in Greta Gerwig’s panorama of modern womanhood might have helped. As it is, she’s had to do it all herself. As usual. Christie writes and stars in The Change – her sitcom debut – as Linda, a much put-upon wife, mother and retail worker who reaches a crisis point at her 50th birthday party.
It’s not just the menopause. It’s also the cluelessness of her husband (Omid Djalili), the open disdain of her teenage children and society’s general denial of the full humanity of older women that pushes Linda over the edge. She determines to take back some of those 3.5 million minutes of domestic drudgery (she’s been keeping careful record) and heads off on an adventure of self-discovery. She looks pretty cool doing it too, astride her Triumph motorcycle, amid the mystical ancient woodlands of the Forest of Dean, in search of a time capsule she hid there as a 10-year-old. Thus, by the first commercial break of the first episode, The Change has already succeeded in its primary goal: Linda is the role model we’ve all been waiting for. Hot flushes never looked hotter.
