BBC picks up Phoebe Waller-Bridge thriller Killing Eve

BBC has acquired Killing Eve, a new thriller by Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge, to premiere on BBC One and BBC Three later this year.

The eight-part series will premiere in a primetime slot on BBC One and BBC Three will make it available as a box set on BBC iPlayer.

Killing Eve is based on the Villanelle novellas by Luke Jennings. It is produced by Sid Gentle Films for BBC America, which will premiere the series on April 8. BBC acquired it from Endeavor Content.

Grey’s Anatomy’s Sandra Oh is Eve, a bored MI5 security officer whose desk job does not fulfill her fantasies of being a spy.

Waller-Bridge will serve as writer and producer. Sally Woodward Gentle and Lee Morris will also executive produce with Colin Wratten serving as producer.

Sue Deeks, BBC head of programme acquisition, said: “Killing Eve is a startlingly original thriller. In turn both laugh-out-loud funny and edge-of-your-seat gripping, Phoebe Waller-Bridge has filled her new series with an array of wonderful characters brought to life by a dream cast.”

Woodward Gentle said Killing Eve was “is the kind of bold, provocative drama that the BBC does best and shows the BBC’s ambition”.