The spy drama is a "laugh-out-loud funny and edge-of-your-seat gripping" dramatic thriller revolving around a psychopathic assassin and the women charged with hunting her down.

Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy) is Eve, a bored MI5 security officer whose desk job does not fulfil her fantasies of being a spy. Jodie Comer (Doctor Foster) is Villanelle, a fearsome assassin clinging to the luxuries her violent job affords her. When Eve is tasked with tracking down Villanelle before she can strike again, the two women are thrown into a cat-and-mouse game that turns the traditional spy-thriller on its head.

Writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who is best known for her RTS Award-winning comedy Fleabag, spoke to the RTS about the project last year.

“It’s basically a game of cat-and-mouse between two women who in a lot of ways are very opposite to each other, but who become obsessed with and by each other,” she explained.

Waller-Bridge added of the casting, “I am quivering with excitement about working with Sandra! I have been a huge fan of hers forever and am pinching myself that she is playing our Eve. She is going to be so badass in this role.”

The eight-part series will premiere in a prime time slot on BBC One later this year and will be made available as a box set on the online-only BBC Three.

Oh and Comer are joined by Fiona Shaw (Harry Potter) as Carolyn Martens, David Haig (Four Weddings and a Funeral) as Eve’s colleague Bill, and Kim Bodnia (The Bridge) as Konstantin.

Sue Deeks, BBC Head of Programme Acquisition, says: “Killing Eve is a startlingly original thriller. In turn both laugh-out-loud funny and edge-of-your-seat gripping, Phoebe Waller-Bridge has filled her new series with an array of wonderful characters brought to life by a dream cast.”

Gary Marenzi, Head of Sales at Endeavor Content, says: "We’re proud to be championing incredible creatives like Phoebe, Sandra and Jodie, and bringing a fresh female-fronted project to a UK audience with our friends at BBC One and BBC Three.”

Sally Woodward Gentle, CEO of Sid Gentle Films Ltd, says “We could not be more delighted that Killing Eve has found a home on the BBC. It is the kind of bold, provocative drama that the BBC does best and shows the BBC’s ambition.”