Fainted LOVE

Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones play young lovers in an adaptation of the powerful and painful coming-of-age romance novel

- ALISON SLADE

NEW DRAMA

Normal People

Mon, BBC1 HD, 9pm & 9.30pm (All 12 eps will be on BBC3 Online from Sunday 26 April, from 6am)

Alongside a row of lockers in the corridor of a school just outside Dublin, tension is in the air as, amid teasing from his friends, a teenage boy tries to hide his feelings for the geekiest girl in school…

TV&Satellite Week is on set to watch the filming of Normal People, BBC3 Online’s much-anticipated 12-part drama based on Sally Rooney’s acclaimed novel about the star-crossed romance between socially awkward, middle-class Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and deeply sensitive, working-class Connell (Paul Mescal).

Co-written by Rooney, the adaptation begins as the pair are in their final year at school in the west of Ireland. While Marianne has a troubled home life with her icy widowed mother Denise (Outlander’s Aislín McGuckin), Connell lives with his caring single mum Lorraine (Dublin Murders’ Sarah Greene), who also happens to be Denise’s cleaner.

When Connell comes to collect his mum from work, he and Marianne grow close despite their different backgrounds. As romance blossoms, they try to keep their relationship secret because Marianne is regarded as an outcast at school, while Connell is sporty and popular.

‘Marianne seems aloof, direct and odd and does her own thing,’ says Edgar-Jones, 21, as she sits down in a classroom with us during a break in filming.