Only if you’ve been away visiting another planet will you be unaware that Killing Eve by Phoebe “Fleabag” Waller-Bridge is a new series that supposedly rewrites the rule book when it comes both to thrillers and female characters – and that it is now available in its entirety on BBC iPlayer. Here on this planet, where I resolutely remain most of the time, I grew slightly sick of hearing about this one-woman television revolution in the weeks before it aired. Yet it turns out that such talk wasn’t just hype. Killing Eve is completely delightful, and I think now that Waller-Bridge really might, after all, be the best thing to happen to women and TV since Sarah Jane Smith snuck aboard the Tardis in 1973.
Back then, we all assumed that women, whether in denim waistcoats or not, would be everywhere by the year 2000. Unfortunately, we were wrong. Even as Jodie Whittaker takes over on Doctor Who (presumably her new assistant will be a bloke), the majority of female characters still exist only in relation to their male counterparts, and conform mostly to the old stereotypes. Those who work, for instance, will often be lonely, while those who are frisky are likely to bring all manner of trouble on their heads.
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