just good friends?
After Normal People’s runaway success, Sally Rooney is back with a steamy story about complicated relationships
Sally Rooney won acclaim with her novel Normal People and viewers were hooked on its screen adaptation in 2020. And if you were one of them, you’ll be thrilled that a series based on the Irish author’s earlier book Conversations With Friends is now hitting our tellies.
The story follows college students and ex-lovers Frances and Bobbi, who become embroiled in a relationship with an older couple, with the events set against the backdrop of the Dublin literary scene.
Directed by Lenny Abrahamson and featuring Joe Alwyn and Jemima Kirke, this is an erotic drama you won’t want to miss. So, here’s what you need to know...
The plot: The show centres on Frances and her best friend and ex-girlfriend Bobbi, who are college students in Dublin. As the pair are performing spoken-word poetry, they are noticed by Melissa – a photographer in her early thirties. Melissa decides to invite the students back to the home she shares with her actor husband Nick, with their lives becoming more and more entwined as Frances begins an affair with Nick, while Bobbi and Melissa also grow close.
The Author: Conversations With
Friends was Sally’s debut novel, written while she was studying for her master’s degree in American literature. It won her the Sunday Times/peters Fraser & Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award.
Her follow-up, Normal People, was the first of her books to be adapted for
TV, earning four Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Sally’s third novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You, was out last year and is a New York Times bestseller.
The STARS: Newcomer Alison Oliver,
23, will play Frances in the drama. She already had a foot in the Sally Rooney universe as she counts Normal People
stars Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-jones as friends. Sasha Lane, 26, who is best known for playing Hunter C-20 in Loki, will star opposite Alison as Bobbi.
Former Girls star Jemima Kirke, 37, portrays Melissa. Jemima was described as “one of the best actresses and stars on any screen in a very long time” by
The New Yorker.
She has said, “If I’m playing a wife in a troubled marriage, I won’t think about my own marriage because then I’m putting myself into it and that’s not the job.”
Rounding off the cast is Joe Alwyn, 31, who plays Nick. He won a Grammy for his work on girlfriend Taylor Swift’s album
Folklore last year.
Joe has said of the sex scenes, “They’re essentially choreographed. So they’re like fight scenes. They’re quite mechanical. And obviously, they’re weird, funny, strange things to do with your friends. But when [director] Lenny’s in the room, cracking jokes, and there are 10 crew members around, and it’s freezing cold or boiling hot, it just takes all the sexiness out of it.”
Available on
BBC iplayer and broadcast on Sunday, 10pm, BBC Three