10 Best TV Performances Of 2016
7. Phoebe Waller-Bridge - Fleabag
If you're yet to discover Fleabag (which aired on BBC in the UK, and is available on Amazon elsewhere) then you've missed one of the low-key best shows of the year. It's not always an easy watch, but it is an honest, open, sometimes brutal and often hilarious take on romantic relationships, family struggles, and most of all dealing with loss.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge wrote the series as well as starring in it, adapting it from her own one-woman play.
Although the cast is rounded out here, she's still very much the epicentre, a ball of energy, emotion, and dark humour that dominates every half-hour instalment.
Within the narrative, she carries across one woman's struggles with all life can throw at her, shades of darkness underneath a dazzling and funny exterior. Then, without warning, she'll break the fourth wall, revealing even more of her character direct to camera and the audience. The way she judges and balances the tone of her performance in one of the series' real strengths, as she invites you to laugh and cry with her in equal measure.