Yahoo News First look at returning hit TV comedy filmed in the Forest of Dean with an all-star cast
A hit comedy that wowed critics and impressed audiences is returning to Channel 4 after new episodes were filmed in the Forest of Dean. The Change, created and written by Bridget Christie, boasts an all-star cast - and not just in front of the camera.
Mackenzie Crook (Detectorists, The Office, Pirates of the Caribbean) directs the comedy-drama series which will return in early 2025. Christie, from Gloucester, also stars in the series as Linda, a 50-year-old, married, working-class mother-of-two having an existential crisis prompted by the menopause.
She is joined by including Susan Lynch playing Eel Sister Agnes; Tanya Moodie playing DJ Joy; Liza Tarbuck playing Linda’s older, domineering sister Siobhan; Jim Howick as The Verderer; Jerome Flynn as Pig Man; Paul Whitehouse as Tony and Omid Djalili is back as Linda’s husband Steve. Laura Checkley (King Gary, Detectorists) joins as Eel Sister Theresa.
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At the start of series two, Linda (Bridget Christie) has got some explaining to do. Faced with the repercussions of the lies she’s told the forest community, along with losing the Mother Tree, and the arrival of husband Steve who has come to bring her home, Linda's future in the forest looks uncertain.
But she’s already come a long way since being mother/wife/homemaker Linda Jane Jenkins of Swindon, and her journey is far from over. She may have only been Eel Queen for a day, but something’s changed in Linda which means she’s not done yet – in fact she’s only just started. But little does she realise what a huge impact this decision will have on the town…and Steve.
Speaking ahead of the launch of the first series back in June 2023, Christie said it was a nostalgic homecoming as she spent time in the Forest in the 1970s, saying it was a 'love letter' to the woodland and "to women, borne out of my childhood memories.”
She said: “I wanted to create a show with an ordinary, relatable story at its heart, but place it in an extraordinary setting. To capture the mundanity of our day-to-day lives but also the magic and beauty all around us that we miss because we’re too busy to notice. So, we have two contrasting worlds – one of grey, suburban domesticity and the other of vivid, rural community life.”
