LAURIE NUNN
Creator and writer
Take us back to the initial inspiration for the show.
The idea was brought to me through the production company, and it basically was: what would happen if we put a teenage sex therapist on a school campus? As I continued to develop the series, it became clear that this was going to be a way to have conversations about sex and relationships with teenagers and look at some of the wrongs that are done at school through bad sex education.
What was your experience of sex education at school?
It was pretty atrocious. It was usually taught by a substitute teacher, someone who didn’t really have training in how to talk about sensitive subject matters. LGBTQ sex was not mentioned at all; consent – I never heard the word consent, I didn’t really understand what that was; and female pleasure and desire was not focused on.
It was very fear-mongering: if you are stupid enough to engage in sex as a young person, then don’t get an STI and don’t get pregnant. Through the experience of writing Sex Education, I’ve learned so much about my own body, my own identity, and I think I’ve had to go on that journey because I wasn’t given those tools as a younger person.
How tricky is it to write a sex scene?
It’s about not worrying about it… just get it on the page and talk about it like it really is; which is usually a bit awkward, uncomfortable and quite graphic.
How would you describe season three?
There’s a real theme that runs through a lot of the characters’ storylines, which is to do with shame and how that can be a very dangerous emotion when it’s weaponised against people.
Sex Education
does a great job when it comes to queer representation and this season we meet new student Cal, played by Dua Saleh, who identifies as non-binary.
It felt really important to me that we have
“It felt really important to me that we have trans non-binary representation in the show”
trans non-binary representation in the show, so I knew that I wanted to introduce a character that identifies on that spectrum… We worked closely with various non-binary consultants and Dua, a talented new actor who is also non-binary themselves, to make sure that this character felt as real and nuanced as possible.
Has a storyline ever been sparked by a fan message?
I try not to listen to what the fans want too much, because I think it might start to sway me away from my instincts… But I do get lovely messages; I get a lot of messages from young women or women saying that they didn’t know they had vaginismus [until they watched the show], and they now know that’s the thing they suffer from.
Aimee’s sexual assault story in season two created so much conversation outside the show as well.
That storyline definitely resonated
with people, which was very cathartic for me, because Aimee’s story came from a very personal experience in my own life, and it was something I wanted to write about. As a writer, you’re constantly working things through from experiences in your own life, and that’s what I was doing.
I realised that lots of people were feeling like they were seeing their own experiences reflected through Aimee and then also the other girls when they come together and talk about the thing that bonds them. It made me feel very connected to my audience in quite a tangible way. Hopefully, young men have watched that and realised that there’s a lot of work to do.
We continue to follow Aimee into series three. We really want to talk about how trauma, particularly sexual trauma, isn’t
“Sexual trauma isn’t something that disappears overnight… you have to learn to live with it and carry it”
something that disappears overnight, it’s something that once you’ve experienced it, you have to learn to live with it and carry it.
Which character do you most enjoy writing for?
Otis is probably the character I feel is the closest to me and who I am, so sometimes I actually find him the most difficult to write.
Can you tell me about the writers’ room you’ve assembled?
It has always felt more productive for me to take a risk on writers who might be a little less experienced or more unknown, but are really diverse and come from lots of different backgrounds. It is a very queer room and it’s a majority female-led space, and I just think that those things fit naturally with the subject matter of the show and the tone.
Is there a taboo you’re particularly proud of busting?
Just having a focus on female pleasure, really, and saying that women are sexual beings, and they have desire, and they wank just as much as men do and to really destigmatise that, and show that, yeah, women have sexual agency.