Assassins armed with killer quips

▼ KILLING EVE (BBC1)

MI5 headquarters seems like quite a dull place on screen. Despite working round the clock to save the world – apparently, quite an exciting job – it consistently appears to be full of very serious people. They’re always frowning at computers, hissing down phones or telling off James Bond for smashing up another embassy.

Thankfully Killing Eve, the dark comedy thriller from the BBC, knows what the rest of us suspect – MI5 is just as silly as any other workplace.

Spies are really just put-upon analysts who trudge into work hungover, trade quips about vitamin pills and pine for a croissant because they’ve had to come in on a Saturday. Meetings may be boring but they also have a barely concealed undercurrent of malice because someone didn’t get invited to a colleague’s birthday drinks. Sandra Oh is analyst Eve who steps out of her deskbound comfort zone directly into the path of psychopathic hit woman Villanelle.

Armed with a sweet smile, slightly vacant stare and a body-count of six in the first 40 minutes, that’s somewhere Eve doesn’t want to be.

The script is from the brain of Phoebe Waller-bridge, the writer of cult sitcom Fleabag. She’s put painful humour and poisonous barbs into the world of spies and assassins.

Killing Eve feels like The Bourne Identity crossed with Gone Girl, and the quips are nearly as sharp as Villanelle’s hairpin.

▼ WANDERLUST (BBC1)

It’s been dubbed the raunchiest show in TV history, but Wanderlust might be less sexy than Match Of The Day.

Last week, Toni Collette came home and had a steamy clinch in the bathroom with her husband, who she found on the toilet. Nothing quite as erotic as forgetting to wash your hands.