Fiona Shaw offered ‘so much work’ following Killing Eve success

Fiona Shaw has revealed she has been offered “so much work” since starring in the hugely popular spy series Killing Eve.

The Irish actress has enjoyed a successful stage career and appeared in the Harry Potter films as the much-maligned aunt Petunia.

She has reached a new audience with Killing Eve, in which she stars as the austere head of MI6’s Russia section overseeing Sandra Oh’s pursuit of Jodie Comer’s psychopathic assassin.

Shaw, who also appeared in the second season of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s acclaimed comedy Fleabag, said job offers had been rolling in on the back of Killing Eve.

She told the PA news agency: “The impact it’s had is I’m offered so much work, and I’m enjoying that very, very much. I’m reading a huge amount.”

Shaw, 61, said while she enjoyed making Killing Eve, she finds it “very hard work” and revealed “I lose sleep over it a lot”.

“It is huge concentration and you have to hold an enormous amount in your mind and that is why the audience likes it”, she said.

“But the appreciation of it, its success, I’ve never experienced anything like it in television. In the streets of London people stop you all the time, talking about a plot point, or people all point at you on an escalator. It’s an amazing moment.”

Killing Eve, created by Waller-Bridge, arrived in April 2018 to critical acclaim, with a second, similarly well-received season airing earlier this year.

The series has been a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic and this week Liverpool-born Comer added an outstanding actress Emmy to the Bafta she won in May.

Shaw also won a Bafta for her supporting role as spymaster Carolyn Martens and was nominated for an Emmy. She said Killing Eve is rare in that it appeals to both men and women.

“I think the really good thing about Killing Eve is men like watching it”, she said.

“And if men get over themselves and actually watch women and enjoy women performing I think the whole thing will balance out. It’ll be much more fun for the men, too. And much more fun, obviously, for women.

“So the belief that men only watch men has been broken by this and that’s really a good thing.”