I’ve seen the new Normal... and it’s quite extraordinary
iplayer, streaming now Being young and in love for the first time is ludicrous. In May you’re grappling with Fortnite and Tiktok challenges (or whatever equivalent was in your era) then in June you’re feeling the type of furious ardour even Shakespeare toiled to describe. The struggle to hold back the tidal wave of passions threatening to tumble from your heart comes when you’re also battered against the rocks of who you are, and who you’re going to be. I’m not sure this journey has been portrayed on the small screen quite so clearly and poignantly before, but now we have BBC3’S Normal People. Based on Sally Rooney’s much-loved book, it tells the story of two Irish teens’ complex journey into adulthood. Marianne, played by Daisy Edgar-jones, is brittle and unpopular, from a home with more money than any nourishing affection. Paul Mescal’s Connell, meanwhile, is the product of a loving single mum. His popularity comes with different anxieties, though. Their off-again, on-again romance is charted throughout the course of 12 half-hour episodes each charting a step in the Marianne and Connell’s searing, painful journey into maturity, together and apart. Episodes are filled with lingering silences and furtive, lustful glances. The pair orbit each other before clashing and coming together in sex scenes which are as graphic as they are always justified. The triumph here is to guide you – or drag you – back to those sapling days when you were a rooted tangle of anxieties and desires. Normal people, extraordinary drama.