Book Review – Fleabag: The Scriptures by Phoebe Waller-Bridge
First published, 2019
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I happened upon Fleabag, the series, I suspect like everybody else. I’d become obsessed with the first series of Killing Eve (on which Phoebe Waller-Bridge was show-runner) and when I recognised her name and saw a trailer for Fleabag, I loved her reactions to camera right off the bat.
In Fleabag: The Scriptures, we find the full scripts for both seasons, including opening shots, looks to camera, and those gloriously heartbreaking flashbacks with best friend, Boo. I loved the development of the relationships between Fleabag, her sister, Claire, and stepmother, Godmother.
I highlighted so many scenes in this kindle edition, but the line that stopped my heart when I first heard it, and practically choked me from the page, was this one from series two, episode two, where Fleabag is talking to the counsellor her father has got her a voucher for as a birthday present.
(Fleabag is, of course, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the Counsellor is played by Fiona Shaw. Brace yourselves.)
FLEABAG
Just please – tell me how to not f*** a priest before I get arrested.
COUNSELLOR
I don’t think f***ing a priest will make you feel as powerful as you think it will.
FLEABAG
Can you just tell me what to do?
COUNSELLOR
You know.
(beat)
You already know what you’re going to do. Everybody does.
FLEABAG
What?
COUNSELLOR
You’ve already decided what you’re going to do.
64% in, Fleabag: The Scriptures, Series Two, Episode Two
I nearly died.
Having seen the series, more than once, I could hear the characters and see the cast in my head as I was reading, but there are so many great and witty lines – the line about pine nuts had me in hysterics –
– that I felt the story and the characters really captured something of the world we live in as modern women in a Britain that would still rather not talk about things.
Love, love, love.
Petrina Binney - Author 