10 Iconic TV Characters Only ONE Actor Could Play

For starters, legendary sitcom Fleabag was based on Phoebe Waller-Bridge's own 2013 one-woman show, and so there was literally nobody better to translate her unique comedic perspective from stage to screen.

With any other performer reading Waller-Bridge's words, it wouldn't feel quite as truthful, given the crushing honesty that radiates from every single moment of Waller-Bridge's performance throughout the comedy's two series.

Fleabag couldn't feel more polar opposite to most female sitcom leads - she's catty, self-destructive, and at times downright unlikeable, yet such is the complexity of any human being, and Waller-Bridge nails that challenging duality perfectly.

Waller-Bridge wrote the character for herself and first performed her at 2013's Edinburgh Festival Fringe, after which it became downright impossible to consider a household name being drafted in to replace her in the TV adaptation.

Though Waller-Bridge insists that Fleabag isn't an autobiographical work, it is at least rooted in the singular way she sees the world, and one can imagine even many talented actresses failing to bring full emotional authenticity to it as a result. It was always her or bust, basically.