FLEABAG IS BACK – AND IT’S AS SURPRISING AS EVER

From a hot priest to Kristin Scott Thomas, Hattie Crisell gets a sneak preview of the long-awaited second series

OUR FAVOURITE f***ed-up anti-heroine is back this week – and, in perhaps the most surprising twist yet, she’s finding religion. Yes, kicking off with two bloodied noses and the words, ‘ This is a love story’, the second (and apparently final) series of Fleabag lands on Monday, with all the addictive outrageousness of the first.

If you’re not yet familiar, Fleabag is the BBC series that packs desperately sad family dysfunction, horrible sex and even worse personal relationships into a comedy slot. It lures you into laughing and then, when you least expect it, hits you with a devastating emotional blow.

The last time we saw our protagonist – who has no name, except for being the Fleabag in question – was in 2016, when her family and professional life had crumbled in the wake of her best friend’s death.

It’s been a long wait, but then Phoebe Waller-bridge, 33, who created, writes and stars in the series, is a very busy woman. She was already an in-demand actress when she performed Fleabag as a one-woman show in Edinburgh in 2013. Once she’d been snapped up to adapt it for the BBC, she landed a role in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and just before Fleabag the TV show came out, she wrote and appeared in Channel 4’s Crashing. More recently, Waller-bridge adapted Codename Villanelle to make last year’s stellar hit Killing Eve. She’s also written a drama starring Domhnall Gleeson, which we should see later this year.

So what can we expect from the second series? In the first episode, we learn that she’s been focusing on self-care. There are glimpses of avocado toast, boot camp squats in the park and even a moment of her declining casual sex. We also see her meet a flirty priest, played by Andrew Scott. Reports suggest that he’s going to become the love interest of the series (new cast members will also include the brilliant Kristin Scott Thomas and Fiona Shaw).

And yet, despite all these apparently wholesome new distractions, there Fleabag is putting a brave face on an excruciating family dinner, with the awful brother-inlaw who lunged at her in the first series, and Olivia Colman shining as her unbearable stepmother. Before long, it’s darkly funny business as usual – and we find out exactly how those bloodied noses come about. BBC One and BBC Three from 4 March