Phoebe Waller-Bridge "got really obsessed" with 'Absolutely Fabulous'.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge for GQ
The 33-year-old actress and writer is known for having created hit shows including 'Fleabag' and 'Killing Eve', and has credited the 90s BBC sitcom - which is often shortened to 'Ab Fab' - for giving her the inspiration to create her own shows, because she loved how the cast were able to do "exactly what they wanted to do".
Speaking about her TV influences, she said: "The one that I got really obsessed with was 'Ab Fab'. That was the big TV thing that made a difference for me. I was just like, 'How are they doing that? They're actually doing that.' They were just hammered all the time! They were just doing exactly what they wanted to do. I hadn't really seen it before."
Phoebe wrote episodes of 'Killing Eve' whilst filming earlier ones, and has said the process helped her understand more about assassin Villanelle through watching actress Jodie Comer work.
She said: "Villanelle really grew in my mind watching Jodie, because the more playful she got, the more I was like, 'We can go anywhere with this actress.' Around episode four of five, Jodie just started doing this swagger. I was just like, 'Where did that come from?' And I realised it's when she goes back to Russia, her home country, that she's got this other personality there."
And although Phoebe liked writing the episodes as she went, she admitted she prefers to write for herself as the lead role as she did in 'Fleabag', as it makes her "up [her] game" for herself.
Speaking to the July issue of British GQ - which hits newsstands on Friday (31.05.19) - she said: "For 'Fleabag' the play, I was the only one up for doing that at the time and I was the only one up for writing for me at the time ... And it made me up my game for myself, I think, because I think the actor part of me was challenging the writer part of me and the writer part of me challenged the actor part of me."