The Essay: Top of the Bill

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The Essay: Top of the Bill: Deborah Frances-White on Fleabag

Deborah Frances-White on Fleabag

Top of the Bill

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Deborah Frances-White remembers the very first appearance of Fleabag.

No-one had heard of Fleabag when comedian Deborah Frances-White booked Phoebe Waller-Bridge for a show. Deborah recalls the impact of that show and how it emboldened her own work.

Comedian and writer Deborah Frances-White booked a somewhat reluctant Phoebe Waller-Bridge to do a ten-minute spot in a dusty basement theatre in Soho in 2012.  Part stand-up, party storytelling, that night marked the first public appearance of the cultural phenomenon Fleabag. It went on to be developed into a full-length show and performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.  It has run for two highly successful series on BBC TV, winning huge audiences, critical acclaim and a BAFTA and many Primetime Emmy awards.  In this essay, Deborah recalls the impact of that first performance, how it helped drive a new revived wave of feminism and how it emboldened her own work.  

Deborah Frances-White is an award-winning comedian and presenter of the hugely successful podcast The Guilty Feminist, which she launched in 2015. Always recorded with a live audience it has been presented around the world, including events at the Sydney Opera House and the Royal Albert Hall.  To date the podcast has had 70 million downloads.  In 2018 the book of the show was published, its sub-title 'From our noble goals to our worst hypocrisies' sums it up beautifully.  Her Radio 4 series Deborah Frances-White Rolls the Dice won a Writers Guild Award for best radio comedy and has run for several series. Deborah is also a renowned improviser and has new theatre and television shows in development.  
Written and read by Deborah Frances-White

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