‘They literally begged me to be in it.'

Kristin Scott Thomas and Fiona Shaw  are to join the second series of  Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, the BBC has announced.

The pair will have guest roles alongside the returning cast that includes Olivia Colman, Sian Clifford, Bill Paterson, Brett Gelman, Jenny Rainsford, Hugh Skinner and Hugh Dennis.

Waller-Bridge joked of her new co-stars: ‘They literally begged me to be in it. Begged me. Begged. One of them was crying.’

Shaw – who recently appeared as an MI6 agent in Killing Eve, pictured, which Waller-Bridge adapted for the screen – said: ‘Phoebe's mind is like nothing else.’

And Scott Thomas added: ‘Phoebe Waller Bridge cannot be ignored. She manages to hit core issues with sledgehammer brutality as she trips along with a spring in her step. I laughed helplessly as I binge watched the first brilliantly funny series and enjoyed being aghast at times. I was very flattered to be asked to be in Series Two."

In the second series of the acclaimed dark comedy, which is due to launch on BBC Three and Amazon Prime this spring, the title character meets a priest (Andrew Scott) who jolts her into seeing the world in a different way ‘as her life takes her to hell and back’. 

Shane Allen, the BBC’s controller of comedy commissioning, said: "Phoebe’s singular writing and vision has been blessed by British acting royalty lending their talents to the new series. If it was any more starry you’d get a migraine’

Fleabag launched as BBC Three’s most popular and acclaimed show of 2016, scooping a Bafta, two Royal Television Society awards, two Broadcast Awards and a British Press Guild Award, among a string of other accolades. F

Created and written by: Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Directed by: Harry Bradbeer
Producer: Sarah Hammond
Executive producers: Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Harry Bradbeer, Lydia Hampson, Jack and Harry Williams for Two Brothers Pictures and Joe Lewis for Amplify Pictures
Commissioning editor for the BBC:  Kate Daughton
Commissioned by: Damian Kavanagh, while he was Controller of BBC Three, and controller of comedy commissioning Shane Allen.

Published: 24 Jan 2019