For a select but vocal group, Normal People is
the most anticipated TV drama of the year. The novel on which it’s based was that
rare phenomenon – acclaimed literary fiction that people actually read instead
of simply buying in hardback and then leaving conspicuously in the back of shot
in selfies.
On top of literary prizes and critical praise, Sally Rooney’s
cult 2018 novel attracted celebrity devotees (Lena Dunham and Taylor Swift are
diehard admirers) and the kind of dedication from readers that would make any screen
adapter nervous. Good news for fans that Rooney adapted her own work for screen,
alongside playwrights Alice Birch and Mark O’Rowe.
Widely admired, the book was claimed by a generation of young
people who saw themselves, their lives and their relationships in Marianne and
Connell, the two leads whose lives it follows from school in Ireland to
university. It’s a frank, intimate story about two people pulsing in and out of
each other’s lives that reflects – with often painful insight – on power, sex, class
and love.
Now, Normal People is a 12-part half-hour drama due to arrive as a boxset first on BBC Three in the UK (via iPlayer) on Sunday April 26th, and then on Hulu in the US on Wednesday April 26th. Following in the footsteps of Killing Eve (season three of which arrives on Monday the 13th of April) the episodes will also air on BBC One at a later date.
