We’ve got so much time for
PHOEBE WALLER- BRIDGE
NOBODY CAPTURES THE bleakness of human existence with such painful hilarity as Phoebe WallerBridge, creator and star of the exquisite Fleabag.
So we’ve been hungrily anticipating Killing Eve, the new series written by Phoebe and starring Sandra Oh as a disillusioned MI5 analyst on the tail of a sadistic murderer ( Jodie Comer). Early reviews have giddily described it as ‘thrilling, deranged and sincerely fun,’ and a second season has already been commissioned – before the first episode has even aired.
The secret to her success? The power of female friendship. Last week Phoebe revealed that, once a month, she gets together with a group of women in film and television ( including Fleabag co-creator Vicky Jones and Jessica Knappett, who made E4’s Drifters) to eat macaroni cheese and talk about their lives.
‘ We have these aggressive chats until 4am,’ she said, ‘ but we’ve started switching from booze to tea around 11pm because we need to remember the conversations.’
It’s just as well, because we have them to thank for Phoebe’s razor-sharp depictions of furious women.
‘A lot of female anger has been unleashed recently,’ she continued. ‘It motivates and galvanises and changes things, and that’s what’s happening now.’ And, spurred on by those 4am conversations, she is not going to stop making outrageously subversive TV any time soon. ‘ The more work I make and the more powerful I get, the more outspoken and controlling I’m going to be.’ Amen to that.