Apart from comedians raving about how well/badly they are doing at the Edinburgh Festival at the moment, most of my timeline is taken up with people saying how brilliant Fleabag is. A lot of people have singled out Phoebe-Waller Bridge’s lead performance for particular praise and she certainly deserves it, but the fourth episode also showcases the formidable talents of her co-star Sian Clifford, who plays her neurotic career-driven sister Claire (that’s not Claire in the picture btw, it’s Fleabag’s dead friend).

I don’t know if the story in the fourth episode featured in the original play this series is based on, but it’s one of those self-contained instalments, like when sitcom characters go on a road trip or spend an entire episode in the queue for the doctor’s surgery. Fleabag and Claire have headed off to a silent retreat in a swanky house in the countryside. Can they bond and resolve their differences? Well, not without talking obviously, so there is some dialogue.

Inevitably the hippy dippy hotel and the “breath of silence” people in it is a rich source of comedy, but the script goes in unexpected directions too. At one point, when not cutting the grass with nail scissors or scrubbing the floor Fleabag encounters a men’s group (led by Doc Brown) in another wing which is very different.

And in the group she sees the bank manager played by Hugh Dennis who she had an encounter with in the first episode. I’ve never been a big fan of Dennis, who usually seems desperate to make people laugh in comedy shows. Here he is a revelation, playing it completely straight and delivering a heart-rending speech about the small things he wants from his life. The episode is worth watching just for that.  

Oh sorry, I was supposed to be singing the praises of Sian Clifford, as troubled, angry, fragile Claire, but I got distracted by all the other great things here. Clifford is also fantastic. It is not just what she says - “I know I seem mental but I’m fine” – but what her face does, twitching and moving around ever so slightly to convey the torment she is going through. At one point Fleabag takes the piss out of the hotel saying to one of the employees “extraordinary energy here”. The same phrase could be used sincerely when describing Clifford’s performance. 

Episode 4 is available here.

Read a review of episode 1 here.

Read a review of episode 2 here.

Read a review of episode 3 here.