Fans of Sally Rooney’s wildly popular novel Normal People will get to see the inner lives of the book’s characters, Connell and Marianne, brought vividly to life in Ireland by Irish production company Element Pictures as the 12-part series premieres on BBC & Hulu this week.
Normal People was filmed in Ireland in 2019 in counties Sligo and Dublin, with a largely Irish creative and production team, including Oscar-nominated director Lenny Abrahamson. He said: “It felt wonderful to be bringing such an amazing novel to life in the country where I’m from and in the landscapes which I love and know so well, both urban and rural.”
In the series, the characters' relationship is played out against the backdrop of Dublin, Ireland’s historic capital city in the east, and the dramatic scenery on the Wild Atlantic Way and County Sligo on the western seaboard.
The series’ Dublin scenes were filmed in real-life locations, taking in bars, cafés and streets with much of the drama unfolding in Trinity College Dublin, where the characters Marianne and Connell, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal, go to university.
Trinity College is home to some of Ireland’s most iconic heritage, including the world’s most famous medieval manuscript, the Book of Kells. Trinity is alma mater of some of Ireland’s literary greats, such as authors and dramatists Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, and has a special connection to Normal People, as it counts Lenny Abrahamson, author Sally Rooney and Paul Mescal, who plays Connell, in its alumni. Producer Catherine Magee says: “Trinity is a really big part of this show, it’s almost like a character.”