We speak with the executive producer and lead writer of Killing Eve

We all love a dark comedy filled with complex female characters because...drama! Well, now that the Circuit Breaker has just been extended...here’s a show you should start on: Killing Eve, directed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

Based off British author Luke Jennings’ novella Villanelle, the television series is a perfect balance of thrill, strange female friendships and a palatable feminist undertone. The show centres around the story of Eve Polastri, a British intelligence investigator who has been assigned to capture psychopathic assassin Villanelle.

If you’re in
search of something that keeps you wanting more but still checks all the
entertainment boxes, the British Academy Television Awards’ Best Drama Series
winner (2019) is the show you’re looking for.

And to all the fans who have been keeping up with this popular award-winning television series, the wait is over...the finale will premiere on BBC First (StarHub Channel 502) and BBC player on June 1. We know you’re dying to find out what happens next (and if there’s even a fourth series).

To get you guys
excited for more Villanelle and Eve goodness, here’s an exclusive interview
with two of the major players behind this UK production:
Sally Woodward Gentle (executive producer) and Suzanne Heathcote (lead writer).

Can you confirm if there will be another season of Killing Eve?

Sally Woodward Gentle (SWG): Yes, we
can happily confirm that there'll be another season of Killing Eve coming up
after this. We’re already in the room writing it!

How did the team prepare for production during the lockdown (if
you're not on a break)?

SWG: We’re not filming at the moment
so we’re very lucky because of that. We’re not set to start filming until later
in the year so we’re not making compromises in terms of the script at all.
We’re just monitoring everything as it goes on and as more production starts,
we’re trying to work out how we operate without having to compromise. At the
moment, we’re not really changing anything. We’re thinking a little bit about
how many actors we could bring in from abroad but that's the only thing we’ve
considered so far.

How has the character of Villanelle evolved over the series?

SWG: Suzanne’s absolutely right.
Season 3 was a much more emotional season and it was great to see Villanelle
challenged in a way. It’s really important for us from season to season that
you see the characters grow and you start to understand what that particular
relationship stands for.

Suzanne Heathcote (SH): Specifically,
for Season 3 Villanelle is about being in control and feeling like she’s in
control of her life and everything she does. This season is really about her
trying to understand that and regain that control and appreciate that she
hasn’t necessarily been in control when she thinks she has. Both emotionally
and in terms of her life and her life choices. We also saw in this season, it
was about her trying to understand where she came from. There’s the real desire
to find that out and the effect that has had on her certainly had a huge
emotional impact on her character this season.

Do you both listen to what the fans want or do you just let your
creativity flow?

SWG: All the fans are extraordinary
and have really sort of built the success of the show but they take very
different things from it. I think if you were to spend your entire time
listening to everybody, in the end you just have to go dark and do what feels
right for those characters.

SH: Obviously going into this role,
you're so aware of the fans. It’s an amazing fan base who are incredibly
passionate about the show and you want to honour the world that you’ve been
given and do new things with it. You’re obviously hopeful that fans are going
to enjoy it but at some point, you have to forget all the outside voices and
really just write the story that feels true to you…the characters and what it
is you’re trying to create. So a little of both, I would say.

Can you both please share your favourite episode in Series 3?

SWG: It’s a (tight) fight between
episode 4 and episode 5. I like episode 4 because I like playing with the
structure and I like the fate of Niko. I thought that was good fun and really
surprising. I just thought it was playful and all the performances were
fantastic. Episode 5 just because it was a tour de force for Jodie but also the
other actors around her I thought were completely brilliant. To get a little
bit of a glimpse into her backstory when we’ve been holding up for so long felt
very rewarding.

SH: It's so hard because they’re like
children. I love them all for different reasons. However, I loved episode 3, I
felt that it was real. The bus scene and I loved the baby in the bin. I know,
maybe it’s not for everyone but I did love that moment. There was something so
exciting for me about that episode and Laura Neal who wrote that episode did
such a great job. I loved episode 5 as well. I think it was so fun creating a
world that was removed from the world we’ve seen already and just really having
an opportunity to do something very different with Villanelle and seeing her in
a different environment. As Sally said, the cast, the actors we got for that
episode were just amazing. It was just amazing seeing that world come to life.

What is it about complex female characters that intrigues you so
much?

SWG: I think it's quite telling that
we’re being asked why it's fun writing complex characters. It’s just like why
haven't we been? All human beings should be portrayed as complex and as
extraordinary as they live and quite often for a very long time, there’s a lot
of female characters that have just been characterised as wives, cooks or
teachers. It’s great fun writing incredibly naughty women because that's sort
of the reality of most women. It doesn’t feel like we’re doing something
ground-breaking, it just feels like we’re doing something truthful.

SH: We’re all complex, we’re all
flawed and we’re all contradictions. That's the pleasure of writing. It’s
really picking those and surprising yourself and everyone with those
contradictions and complexities. With female characters its simply that we’ve
seen far fewer of them over the years on screen and so it just feels very rich
and there’s a lot of surprising and unexplored people, characters and women to
create. So, it’s just such rich soil. I just really love writing very difficult
and unflawed women.

Who is your favourite character? And why?

SWG: How can we possibly choose
between our children. I’ll choose a character that is not one of our leads.
Frank from Season 1. Frank is brilliant. Crying and running Frank. I loved him.

SH: They’re all so unique and
brilliant in their own way. It’s just too difficult to single one out and
that’s actually what I think is the joy of the show. It’s that each of the
characters have their own brilliance and elements that everyone seems to love
in their own way, even the people we’re not supposed to. There’s no one person
unfortunately, it’s too tough a question.