Fleabag

Background

The show is adapted from Waller-Bridge's 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe one-woman play of the same name which won a Fringe First Award. The initial idea of the character of Fleabag came from a challenge by a friend, where Waller-Bridge was given the task of creating a sketch for a 10-minute section in a stand-up storytelling night.

Cast and characters

Main

• Phoebe Waller-Bridge as "Fleabag"
• Sian Clifford as Claire, Fleabag's sister with whom she shares an uneasy relationship
• Andrew Scott as the priest (series 2), with whom Fleabag falls in love

Supporting

• Ben Aldridge as Arsehole Guy (series 1; guest series 2), one of Fleabag's love interests, so named for his taste for anal sex
• Hugh Skinner as Harry, Fleabag's on-off boyfriend then eventual ex
• Hugh Dennis as Bank Manager (series 1; guest series 2), approached by Fleabag for a loan
• Jenny Rainsford as Boo, Fleabag's deceased best friend and business partner
• Bill Paterson as Fleabag and Claire's father
• Olivia Colman as Fleabag and Claire's godmother, who began a relationship with their father not long after their mother's death and eventually becomes their stepmother
• Brett Gelman as Martin, Claire's aggressive alcoholic husband

Guest

• Jamie Demetriou as Bus Rodent (series 1), one of Fleabag's love interests
• Fiona Shaw as Fleabag's counsellor (series 2)
• Jo Martin as Pam (series 2), who works at the priest's church
• Ray Fearon as Hot Misogynist (series 2), who serves as Fleabag's lawyer and one of her love interests
• Angus Imrie as Jake (series 2), Martin's teenage son and Claire's stepson
• Kristin Scott Thomas as Belinda (series 2), a successful businesswoman who meets Fleabag at an awards ceremony presented by Claire
• Jenny Robbins as Lesley (series 2), Claire's co-worker
• Christian Hillborg as Klare (series 2), Claire's Finnish business partner and love interest

Episodes

Series 1 (2016)

Series 2 (2019)

Distribution and broadcast

BBC Three was the original broadcast channel for the show with a repeat run broadcast on BBC Two between 21 August and 25 September 2016. The second series was broadcast on BBC One at the same time as being released on BBC Three, by this time only available online.

It was picked up by the on-demand Amazon Prime Video (formerly Amazon Video) service and premiered in the United States on 16 September 2016. Series 2 was released in the US on 17 May 2019. Fleabag is also available on IFC in the US. In the Netherlands, it was picked up by Net5.

The show has been remade for French television by Jeanne Herry. Titled (French for 'fly', the insect), it started airing on 3 June 2019 on pay channel Canal+. Mouche is a close remake, though set in Paris with Camille Cottin in the starring role.

Production

Filming

Filming took place in and around London, mostly North West and Central with the primary location being Dartmouth Park, North West London. Street scenes were filmed on five main roads in the area, including Southampton Road, Laurier Road, Croftdown Road, Highgate Road, and York Rise. Other locations include Twickenham, Hampton Hill, Highgate, Tufnell Park, Belsize Park, Maida Vale, Kentish Town, Parliament Hill Fields in Hampstead Heath, Southwark, Bloomsbury, Soho, Stanmore, Lincoln's Inn Fields and Finsbury Square.

Bold Café & Restaurant in Dartmouth Park was used for Fleabag's Guinea Pig Café. Dad and Godmother's house was on Cambridge Park Road in Twickenham. The feminist lecture was at the British Museum's Lecture Theatre in Russell Square. The graveyard that Fleabag jogged through daily was at Kensal Green Cemetery. The silent retreat that Fleabag and Claire attended on Mother's Day was filmed at Hedsor House, an Italianate-style mansion used as a wedding venue in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

The second and final series premiered with a family dinner party filmed at the American steakhouse, Smith & Wollensky in Covent Garden. Hot Priest's church was the Romanian Orthodox and former Anglican church St. Andrew's in Kingsbury. Godmother's sexhibition was held at the Tate Modern in Bankside. Claire's penthouse office was filmed from Heron Tower in Bishopsgate. The funeral was filmed at St Dunstan and All Saints Church in Stepney. The hair salon was 137 – Taylor and Taylor in Shoreditch.

Filming for the first series started in late April 2016, and was released from 21 July to 25 August 2016. Filming for the second and final series started in late August 2018 and was released from 4 March to 8 April 2019.

Music

Waller-Bridge's sister, Isobel Waller-Bridge, composed the music for both series.

Reception

Critical response

Both series of Fleabag received widespread acclaim from television critics. At review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, both series received approval ratings of 100%. The first series received an average rating of 8.5/10, based on 42 reviews, with the site's critical consensus reading: "Clever and viciously funny, Fleabag is a touching, wildly inventive comedy about a complicated young woman navigating the aftermath of trauma." The second series received an average rating of 9.3/10, based on 99 reviews, with the critical consensus stating: "Fleabag jumps back into the fray with a bracing second season that upholds its predecessor's frenzied wit and delicate heart, replete with Phoebe Waller-Bridge's indefatigable charisma". At Metacritic, the first series received a weighted average score of 88 out of 100, based on 19 critics, while the second series received a score of 96, based on 21 critics, both signifying "universal acclaim".

Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker described the first series as "a precision black-humour mechanism, a warped and affecting fable about one single woman's existence." Maureen Ryan at Variety called it "scathingly funny", concluding that "long after it's pulled you in with its irreverence and jokes about sex, and beguiled you with its cutting wit and messily human characters, it reveals that it's actually a tragedy". Hank Stuever of The Washington Post characterised it as a "funny, highly profane but surprisingly poignant dramedy". Mike Hale in The New York Times praised the show for its "restless, almost feral energy and its slap-in-the-face attitude." Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times commended its unpredictability, acting, and "clear eye for truth that often becomes, like all good comedy, quite devastating".

The second series received unanimous acclaim and was considered a cultural phenomenon. Serena Davies of The Daily Telegraph lauded the second series as "a near-perfect work of art". Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon praised its "brilliant swan song", finding the series's conclusion satisfying and "well-earned". For Rolling Stone, Alan Sepinwall wrote that the "tragicomic masterpiece reaches new heights in its second outing". James Poniewozik of The New York Times wrote that "the new season feels immediately confident, if inevitably less groundbreaking. Yet it continues to push its form". Hannah Jane Parkinson of The Guardian described the conclusion as "the most electrifying, devastating TV in years," writing of the second series that "it seems as though many who either did not watch the first series, or who didn't think it lived up to the hype, have been converted".

According to Metacritic's aggregate of decade-end lists, Fleabag was the second-highest ranked show of the 2010s. It has since been considered by multiple publications to be one of the greatest television series of all time.

Former United States President Barack Obama named the second season of Fleabag among his favourite films and television series of 2019. In his annual list, which he released on Twitter on 29 December 2019, he added a small addendum with the title, "and a quick list of TV shows that I considered as powerful as movies: Fleabag: Season 2, Unbelievable, and Watchmen."

Accolades

Home media

References

References

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