First Look: Killing Eve series 3

Never has ‘must-see TV’ been more welcome. With current events affecting almost all areas of life, television production has come to a crashing halt. This time next year the schedules and streaming services – normally bursting with exciting new content – will be unusually quiet. Thank goodness then for great drama that’s already in the can and ready to go. Thank goodness for Killing Eve.

For the third run in a row now the show has a new female lead scribe. This time out, Fear The Walking Dead writer Suzanne Heathcote takes over from Emerald Fennell, who herself replaced Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Another change of writer may well lead to another slight change in tone and direction, but ultimately we know we’re destined for another eight hours of twisted humour, inventive violence and Villanelle and Eve on yet another obsession-driven collision course.

‘I’m very excited that the Killing Eve baton is being passed onto another incredible writer for season three,’ said former writer and now executive producer Waller-Bridge recently. ‘We can sleep soundly knowing these characters are safe in Suzanne Heathcote’s hilariously murderous hands.’

Sounds promising.

Of course, Villanelle – played by the incredible Jodie Comer – returns. As does Sandra Oh’s Eve, despite how things may have looked at the end of the last cliffhanger episode. We also welcome back Fiona Shaw as MI6 boss Carolyn, Sean Delaney as her son Kenny, Owen McDonnell as Eve’s (now estranged) husband Niko and the irrepressible Danish actor Kim Bodnia as Villanelle’s handler Konstantin.

Series 3 introduces a few new faces into the action too. Watch out for newcomers Dame Harriet Walter (Sense and Sensibility, Atonement) as one of Villanelle’s old foes and Steve Pemberton (The League of Gentlemen, Inside No 9) as Carolyn’s odious new spook superior.

Also joining up are Camille Cottin (Call My Agent), Gemma Whelan (Game of Thrones), Turlough Convery (Ready Player One) and Evgenia Dodina (One Week and a Day).

Have a look at what’s to come here in the BBC’s trailer for Killing Eve series 3:

When I said, ‘I needed you’
You said, ‘You would always stay’
It wasn’t me who changed, but you
And now you’ve gone away…

Whoever decided on the Dusty Springfield classic ‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me’ to soundtrack the teaser clearly understands the dynamic of Killing Eve. The first 16 episodes of the critically-lauded crime thriller were all about the lead character’s mutual obsessions with one another, after all.

No doubt that those reciprocated fixations will rear their dangerous heads once more in series 3. Although it seems as though we kick things off with the duo spending some time apart…

Jodie Comer says this about the upcoming third season: ‘Season three picks up six months later and Villanelle is trying to lead a normal life. She’s at an event, but an unexpected visit shakes things up. You will definitely see a different side to Villanelle this series as she goes into her past.’

The first instalment hits BBC iPlayer in the UK at 6am on Monday 13^th April. It’ll also get an outing on BBC One the following Saturday (19^th April) at 9pm. All episodes following weekly after that on both iPlayer and BBC One.

Excited about the new series? Keen to see how Eve and Villanelle’s love/hate relationship can survive a bullet? Let us know your thoughts on the upcoming third series below…