I’d been backwards and forwards to Russia and I had the idea of this young girl growing up in Perm, and this fed into ideas that I’d had for a thriller for a long time.'ĬW: You had written fiction before, but not thrillers.

It’s very difficult to answer where any character comes from. Luke Jennings’ day job is as The Observer’s ballet critic so, naturally, Culture Whisper’s first question was, where in his imaginary did these two women spring from. You know, the one that brings together the frumpy, chaotic but dogged MI5 agent Eve Polastri, played with irresistible conviction by Sandra Oh, and the psychopathic young Russian assassin Villanelle, a chillingly sassy Jodie Cromer, in a thrilling hunting game spiced by the two characters’ mutual fascination.Īdapted for TV by Phoebe Waller-Bridge ( Fleabag, Crashing), as Killing Eve, the origin of the series lies in Luke Jennings’ Villanelle books, the second volume of which, No Tomorrow, has just been published. You’d have to have been living on another planet altogether not to have heard of Killing Eve, the cult television series that’s become THE runaway success of the year on both sides of the Atlantic.

Luke jennings villanelle