Adam Sweeting

Raised by Wolves review: council-estate life but not as you know it

Plus: Gotham, a new-ish American drama from Channel 5 that recalls The Godfather, and Channel 4 takes another swipe at Ukip in Britain's Racist Election

Raised by Wolves, Channel 4 (credit Channel 4) 
issue 21 March 2015

Journalist, novelist, broadcaster and figurehead of British feminism Caitlin Moran, who writes most of the Times and even had her Twitter feed included on a list of A-Level set texts, is now bidding to break into the sitcom business. Can one woman shoulder this ever-increasing multimedia load, along with the fawning tide of adulation that follows her everywhere?

Wisely, she enlisted the help of her sister Caroline to create Raised By Wolves (Channel 4, Monday), a wily reimagining of their home-schooled childhood (alongside six siblings) on a Wolverhampton council estate. After a 2013 pilot, it’s back for a six-part series, with the hyperactive, motormouthed Germaine (the fictionalised Caitlin) played by Helen Monks and her caustic, intellectual sister Aretha by Alexa Davies.

Question is, will it reach beyond an audience of teenage girls? This opener was much concerned with sister Yoko (Molly Risker) having her first period, prompting formidable den-mother Della (Rebekah Staton) to march her girls down the ‘Aisle of Shame’ in Boots to load up with feminine hygiene products (‘these are basically a small mattress in your pants’).

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