大象传媒

In the last few weeks, you have most likely been privy to a conversation around Normal People – the unspooling drama, the no-holds-barred sex scenes, the chain. Almost everyone is talking about it, not least on the Obsessed With... podcast, where hosts Evanna Lynch and Riyadh Khalaf discuss everything they love about the show, exploring every plot twist inside out.

• Listen to Obsessed With... Normal People

Our hosts recently spoke to Lenny Abrahamson, director of six Normal People episodes (sharing duties with Hettie McDonald). He gave some brilliant insight into how the show was made, revealing his thoughts on what makes it so special. Here's what we learned...

*Disclaimer: do not read ahead if you haven't watched Normal People and want to avoid spoilers*

When directing Normal People's first six episodes, one of Lenny's biggest challenges was capturing the authentic Irish narrative behind the book, while also ensuring local language and colloquialisms didn't alienate any viewers. "We thought at some point the axe was gonna fall," he admitted. He expected to receive a call from executives in the United States asking: "‘What are these people saying? We don’t understand'... You only notice how much colloquial language there is when you look at it through the eyes of the people you’re sending it to. Irish people talk quite quickly [too]."

But he never found himself on the wrong end of feedback, he says. "The people we worked with in the 大象传媒 and Hulu weren’t freaking out about every word. We were really surprised that we had as little pushback."

And from the start, he never believed that Normal People's distinct Irishness would alienate viewers. "Audiences are better at understanding things that execs often think they are, so the tricky thing can be getting it past the gatekeepers. You watch so much stuff where you absolutely don’t get everything, it’s about whether the important things are clear."

Intimacy co-ordinator Ita O’Brien worked across the show, ensuring lead stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal never felt uncomfortable during Normal People's (multiple) sex scenes.

Lenny says directors are always reluctant to give up control in making a show, "but I’ve met Ita and it totally changed my mind, because she’s brilliant."

He describes Ita as "the least embarrassed person you’ve ever met in your life," adding: "She just says: ‘This is human behaviour, and we can talk about it the way you talk about any sort of choreography.’"

Her methods included "agreeing touch in advance, making sure there’s this conscious consent given at all times, and that the actors can talk to her independently from me," Lenny says. "If there’s any discomfort, we’re not gonna do it. Oddly, once people know that’s there, the discomfort flows away."

"Now you can look at this scene and say: ‘What would be beautiful? What are the physical shapes we need to make? How can we make them safely in a way that serves the image, rather than being intimate with each other?’ It was a really great process."

With Ita working wonders, Lenny wanted to ensure each sex scene didn't follow TV truisms. "Normally what you see is cliche fumbling or cliche glossy. I wanted to follow the story. The story and psychology and interaction doesn’t stop when the talking stops. It’s not drama and then sex, the camera doesn’t cut, we just continue from the conversation," he says. "To watch all that unfold, it just felt like something I hadn’t really seen on screen before."

One of the biggest talking points around Normal People is the genuine connection between Connell and Marianne, and Lenny says his "favourite scene" from the entire show captures what makes their dynamic so special.

He cites the scene in episode five where Connell apologises for his behaviour in school. "It's the one we rehearsed most," he tells Evanna and Riyadh. "It’s just the two of them sitting there, and they have this incredibly honest conversation - which you don’t always see in drama because drama is supposed to be about conflict or people hiding things from each other. It’s rare to see people speaking with absolute truthfulness, it’s really powerful."

What makes Sally Rooney's book work "so beautifully", he says, is "these two characters have an intellectual connection" – not just a physical one. "They just understand each other, they can follow each other’s thoughts. That excites them, it’s such a buzz. You remember those first friendships in your teens where you felt like you’d met a soulmate. For that to also be someone you’re attracted to is a big, mind-blowing firework. That was the thing we kept going back to: these characters are at their best when they speak to each other with truth."

There's quite the spark between our two main characters, but Obsessed With.. co-host Evanna has a brilliant take on their relationship: "I think they’re soulmates but I don’t even know if they’re compatible as a couple!"

"That’s a really good way of describing it," says Lenny. "I don’t think they’ll ever be able to stop orbiting each other. There’s a deep and unbreakable connection between them. But I agree with you, they are not at their best, in some odd way, when they’re just in a normal pattern."

Their many break-ups are "always based on misunderstandings," he argues, "their insecurities or failures."

But he believes they evolve as a couple towards the end. "In the final episode, they have another one of those key events, but it’s deep understanding. That final moment where they can’t say what will happen in the future, that’s incredibly mature in comparison to what they’ve done before."