'I KNEW I'D BE BLAMED FOR KILLING OFF JAMES BOND'

FLEABAG CREATOR PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE ON TAKING INSPIRATION FROM A 60S CLASSIC AND HAVING A BALL WITH LARA CROFT

- RHONA MERCER

When you’re as talented as Phoebe Waller-Bridge, you can pretty much turn your hand to anything and make it work. The award-winning writer, actress and producer, famous for creating hit comedy Fleabag, is so in demand she can pick and choose projects and do whatever takes her fancy.

Even so, her next choice could be a bit of a surprise for fans. Phoebe, who also wrote the first series of the award-winning Killing Eve, she tells us she’s absolutely thrilled to be writing the new Tomb Raider series – based on the computer game she loved so much as a teenager – for Amazon.

“The reason I’m doing it is because I love Tomb Raider. I played that game incessantly as a teenager and that character [Lara Croft, played by Angelina Jolie in the film franchise in the early 2000s] really affected me and impacted me and empowered me. My God, to be able to write the character that gave me so much as a teenager.”

Phoebe, 37, who is speaking to us during a Masterclass event at Theatre Royal Haymarket in London, is the first to admit that even the makers of the show thought she would turn the offer down.

“They said to me ‘You are not going to want to do this but we have to ask you.’ I said, ‘F**k yes!’ I don’t care what people think. I know what I am going to do with that and I know we are going to have an absolute ball and there is a little revolution inside that show and it is going to be really exciting,” says Phoebe, who recently looked dazzling in a black Dolce & Gabbana gown and Bulgari jewellery at this year’s Oscars.

“You will get bored of doing one thing, so you want to do something else.”