IAN HYLAND on last night’s telly
Fleabag, BBC1 ★★★★★
Yesterday, while promoting his new comedy series that just so happens not to be on terrestrial TV, Ricky Gervais claimed he doesn’t watch terrestrial TV any more because it’s too safe.
For once, his timing was spectacularly out.
You could use many words to describe the return of
Phoebe WallerBridge’s Fleabag to BBC1 last night but safe would not be one of them. (The new comedy that followed it, Jerk, wasn’t exactly Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em either.) There were enough jokes about paedophiles, miscarriages, alcoholics, lewd sex acts and Catholic priests in Fleabag’s second series opener to keep the Points Of View postbag bulging for a year. (No, I don’t know whether Points of View still has an actual postbag.)
Gervais may argue that Fleabag was actually made by an online channel (BBC3) but it was always going to end up on BBC1 – even before Olivia Colman won that Oscar.
Hopefully, her success will have brought a few more casual viewers to this snortout-loud dark comedy. I’d guess anyone who came to the party for Colman would stay for Waller-Bridge, who plays the damaged yet hilarious Fleabag, and Sherlock’s Andrew Scott, whose character The Priest joined the show last night and stole it.
Last week, I was accused of failing to spot the finely nuanced comedy in Alan Partridge’s comeback. I did spot it. I just didn’t think it was worth gushing over.
I will happily gush about the subtleties in this episode of Fleabag until next Monday though.
Partly because not a word, nor a pause, nor a raised eyebrow was wasted.
But mainly because the BBC has cruelly decided not to make the rest of the series available to binge-watch immediately. It’s enough to drive a man to Netflix...