Normal People release date, cast and synopsis from new BBC drama

Normal People is the new drama coming online to BBC Three and also BBC One.

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Sally Rooney, the series will air over 12, half-hour episodes.

Directed by Oscar-nominated Lenny Abrahamson (Room) and award-winning Hettie Macdonald (Howard’s End), Normal People tracks the tender but complicated relationship of Marianne and Connell from the end of their school days in a small town in the west of Ireland, to their undergraduate years at Trinity College.

A synopsis of the series says: “In a school in a small-town west of Ireland, Connell (Paul Mescal) is a well-liked, good looking and athletic football player. Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is a proud, intimidating and unpopular loner who actively avoids her classmates and challenges teachers’ authority.

“Sparks fly between the two when Connell comes to pick up his mother Lorraine (Sarah Greene) from her job at Marianne’s house, and a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers – one they are determined to conceal from their peers.

“A compulsive modern love story, Normal People sees the pair weave in and out of each other’s lives, and explores just how complicated intimacy and young love can be.”

Normal People release date

Normal People is coming online to BBC Three this month (April).

Episodes will begin on BBC Three for UK viewers on Sunday 26 April and Hulu for US viewers on 29 April.

Normal People will also air on BBC One, date to be confirmed.

Normal People cast

Daisy Edgar-Jones (Marianne) – Marianne is extremely bright, but has a darkly complex relationship with her own insecurities and vulnerabilities.

Connell (Paul Mescal) – Connell is a decent athlete and one of the smartest students in the school.

Denise (Aislín McGuckin) – Denise is Marianne’s mother and works as a solicitor.

Lorraine (Sarah Greene) – Lorraine is Connell’s mother. She had Connell when she has 17, and has lived in Sligo all her life.

Adapted and co-written by Sally Rooney, alongside writers Alice Birch and Mark O’Rowe, Normal People filmed last year in Dublin, Sligo, Sweden and Italy.