You wait years for a TV comedy centred on the disruption caused by the sudden arrival of a foreign migrant in a settled world and, suddenly, two come along at once.
This spring, Channel 4 has showcased Home, Rufus Jones’s well-received show in which his uptight character, Peter, and partner return from holiday to find a Syrian man called Sami (Youssef Kerkour) living in the boot of the family car.
"I promised myself that I wasn’t going to say anything rude but I have actually been wet dreaming about getting a Bafta for the whole of my life.” With typically cheeky verve, Phoebe Waller-Bridge accepted her Bafta for her performance in Fleabag back in 2017. Now, with the follow-up series on our screens, fans will be clamouring for more of her stunningly clever tightrope act.
The new series picks up with protagonist Fleabag (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) trying to made amends with her dysfunctional family by attending an uncomfortable dinner to celebrate her Dad’s (Bill Paterson) engagement to her villainous Godmother (Olivia Coleman).
The evening takes a dramatic turn when old tensions rise to the surface after an unexpected attack.
Joined by familiar faces, Fleabag shares the awkwardness with successful sister Claire (Sian Clifford) and alcoholic brother-in-law Martin (Brett Gelman).
The stars will be joining Andrew Scott (Sherlock) as new cast members for the second series of the hit BBC Three comedy.
“Phoebe Waller Bridge cannot be ignored,” said Dame Thomas. “She manages to hit core issues with sledgehammer brutality as she trips along with a spring in her step.”
Fiona Shaw added, “Phoebe's mind is like nothing else.”
Andrew Scott joins a returning cast which includes Olivia Colman (Godmother), Sian Clifford (Claire), Bill Paterson (Dad), Brett Gelman (Martin), Jenny Rainsford (Boo) and Hugh Skinner (Harry).
According to Executive Producer Lydia Hampson, Waller-Bridge began writing the new series in January this year, and the results, promises BBC Comedy boss Shane Allen, are “knockout”.
Windsor plays Rose, a high-flying university student who is accused of cheating in her dissertation by her professor, Leah (Katherine Kelly – The Night Manager, Strike Back).
The women’s relationship spirals out of control as what should be a fairly open-and-shut case of academic deception, gets blown up into a devastating series of events with fatal consequences.
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.
It is a motto she has picked up from Fleabag’s creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
“We wanted to shoot it like a drama and cut it like a comedy,” she explains. “Sometimes it feels like drama is comedy’s big older brother.”
For Hampson and Waller-Bridge, it wasn’t enough to create a ‘typical’ comedy. “We were trying to go for the ambition of drama, but not at the expense of the laughs.”
The news was announced at the Edinburgh TV Festival during a panel discussion with Phoebe Waller-Bridge and BBC Controller of Comedy, Shane Allen.
It was revealed that the second series will arrive on the online platform in 2019, following a hugely successful first series about a sharp and crude twenty-something woman living in London who is trying to come to terms with a personal tragedy.
The first series was adapted from Waller-Bridge's multi award-winning one-woman stage show of the same name, which was first shown at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2013.
Killing Eve is a dramatic thriller revolving around a psychopathic assassin and the woman charged with hunting her down.
Waller-Bridge, who is best known for her RTS Award-winning comedy Fleabag, spoke to the RTS about the project earlier this 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.
