Must do better: the Netflix jocks and cheerleaders (raised in the valleys)
Viewers baffled at Sex Education, internet giant’s US-style high school comedy set in Wales
THE high school campus is bathed in golden sunshine, the kids play American football on the lawns and varsity jackets are the cool uniform of choice.
Welcome to British school life according to Netflix.
Sex Education is a comic coming-ofage drama starring Gillian Anderson as a sex therapist and Asa Butterfield as her mortified teenage son. It is also an attempt by the US streaming giant to steal the BBC’s crown as the home of British-made entertainment.
The series was filmed in Penarth, South Wales, with a British cast and crew. But the first viewers of the show, which launched this weekend, were left baffled by the curious interpretation of the British education system.
“Watching Sex Education on Netflix and I am confused about why this seems to be set in an American high school that’s been dropped in the middle of England,” read one typical comment online.
The answer lies in Netflix’s ambitions to take on the BBC, which has sought to position itself as a broadcaster that invests in British ideas and talent while painting US rivals as firms that commission by algorithm.
Netflix wants to show a commitment to making shows in Britain while marketing them to a global audience more attuned to US high school movies than a wet weekend in South Wales.
While the language is decidedly British, everything else about the show is not.
Jamie Campbell, the producer, told BBC Radio 4 he wanted the drama to be a world away from British school dramas such as Grange Hill, in which “the characters have terrible teeth, the dinners are appalling and it’s the worst time of your life. I love those shows but we wanted to do something different … we wanted a show that was aspirational.”
Laurie Nunn, the show’s British writer, said she intended Sex Education to be an homage to the John Hughes high school films of the Eighties, such as The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink.
Alex Sapot, the American Netflix executive who commissioned the show, denied that there had been a deliberate attempt to give it a generic look. “The theme is universal. The specificity of the place or the culture is the part that makes it distinctive.” Netflix has hired a PR firm to highlight the company’s contribution to the British economy and announced it is “doubling down” on original UK commissions. A launch event for Sex Education included a film in which Penarth residents praised the production and said they hoped it would bring a rise in tourist numbers.
Netflix believes it can take on the BBC in comedy and drama, just as it did in period drama with The Crown.
Mr Sapot said: “We do have an appetite to do more original series out of the UK. We recognise the talent here.”
Netflix ran a scheme offering work experience to residents in Penarth, training them in production roles. “The idea is that, if there is a season two, they would come back next year.”
Sex Education was shot at Caerleon, a former University of South Wales campus which closed in 2016. It has been rechristened “Moordale High”, where US-style crests adorn the building and lockers line the hallway.
Asa Butterfield plays Otis Milburn, a socially awkward student who becomes an unlikely sex guru by dispensing advice to classmates that he gleaned from his mother’s casebook. The show features nudity and frank discussions about teenage sex.
Netflix has thrown millions at marketing, with adverts everywhere from the Underground to Times Square. A second series will depend on viewing figures, which are not released, but Nunn has been commissioned to write more episodes in the expectation that it will be a hit.