Normal People on BBC3

[Bouledeneige]

Binge watched it yesterday and loved it. Emotional, passionate and two really great leads. Thoroughly recommend it (so long as you don't mind lots of love scenes). Cried lie and felt bereft when it finished.

Do they really announce the scholarship results publicly like that? Also why Are they for 5 yrs funding - how long are degrees at trinity or is 4 yrs of that for postgrad?

(Misses point of thread, series and book)

Strangely i thought they’d both have Been better off with other people while at university (marianne with the perfectly pleasant first term boyfriend, and connal with helen). Suspect the book may make it clearer that they were good for each other despite many appearances to the contrary.

I’m interested in the process of making the tv programme. I don’t understand why Lenny Abrahamson and Sally Rooney did the first 6 episodes? I thought the stuff in Sweden and Marianne’s change in attitude towards sex would have benefitted from Sally Rooney’s contribution as screenwriter to pick this up with greater clarity. I don’t think they described her emptiness about it well enough.

Also on the PR front it’s very clear that Paul Mescal is incredibly proud of the story and how it’s been told, however Daisy Edgar-Jones has done far fewer interviews about it, and I’d love to know her experience and views on it.

Oh and the previous poster who commented on the similarities between this and Linklater’s Before Trilogy was something that I’d also thought about. I love stories that aren’t classic romance, but are about intense connections and that circling around each other. I can’t remember a book that made me feel like NP did (apart from The Night Circus). And before anybody suggests CWF, I truly detested that book and found the characters self obsessed and self righteous in a totally off putting way.

I’m interested in the process of making the tv programme. I don’t understand why Lenny Abrahamson and Sally Rooney did the first 6 episodes?

I thought this was a bizarre choice? Was Sally Rooney only the first 6 episodes too?

I wonder why. Surely you'd want to continue to do all the episodes

If anyone finds an interview explaining the decision, I'd be interested to read it.

*Also on the PR front it’s very clear that Paul Mescal is incredibly proud of the story and how it’s been told, however Daisy Edgar-Jones has done far fewer interviews about it, and I’d love to know her experience and views on it.
*

I found an interesting interview with Daisy Edgar-Jones but can't for the life of me find it again as I wanted to share it with DH, it was about the nudity aspect, and the journalist was taking the angle of it being too gratuitous and that we shouldn't have had as many nipple shots of her etc.
Then it had snippets from an interview where she was saying it's not like it's 50-50 fair to compare her bare breasts with Paul Mescals nipples.

Has anyone else read it and can link to it?

@covetingthepreciousthings exactly. Why only sign up to half. It’s interesting that Lenny Abrahamson is getting all the credit in press but Hettie McDonald did the lush cinematography for the whole thing as well as directing the last half. Why is it that the men are getting the attention?

Lenny Abrahamson has made a well known recent film, journalists live to hook into that, and that of course tends to perpetuate the gender divide.
I spent part of yesterday riffling through the dvds stashed all over the house looking for my copies of the first two Before films, need something to fill the gap. I love them but lots of people i recommend them too don't like them at all, usually complaining about all the talking! Marmite, just like NP.
I wonder if Sally Rooney has seen the films, shes too young for them first time around and they arent broadcast much. For some reason I dont imagine SR watching much telly, she seems too industrious...

@Wbeezer I loved the first two 'Before...' films at the cinema but couldn't get into the most recent one when I tried watching it a while ago (I think it's on Amazon Prime?). Is it worth persevering with?

Ive only seen it once, @IndigoApple it was certainly less romantic than the others, made a slightly awkward date night for DH and I. I will rewatch it at some point but ive probably been doing too mych navel gazing during lockdown as it is!

Do they really announce the scholarship results publicly like that? Also why Are they for 5 yrs funding - how long are degrees at trinity or is 4 yrs of that for postgrad?

Yes, they do -- not just scholarships but also fellowships etc. You sit extra exams in early January in your subject area, separately to the requirements of your course, and they announce them at the start of Trinity Week. And the same scholarship of fifteen terms (fees paid, plus living stipend, nightly dinner and accommodation) is offered across all subject areas, so one scholar might need all the available years to fund, say, a medical degree, while someone doing a humanities degree could retain it for postgraduate work.

I spent part of yesterday riffling through the dvds stashed all over the house looking for my copies of the first two Before films,

What are the Before films? Are they just called Before?

They're 'Before Sunrise', 'Before Sunset' and I can't remember what the third one was called!

It's the before trilogy by Richard Linklater, the first one one is Before Sunrise, then Before Sunset and last Before Midnight. They're about the chance meeting on a train of two rather intellectual, attractive young people and what happens next with ten years in between each film. A bit different from NP in that they are very dialogue heavy but the cinematography is very good and the direction is naturalistic. Lovely European locations. I wont give spoilers but they explore the kind of situations that C and M could come up against if they stay involved with each other.

Thanks wb

@pawsforawhile
Anyone else totally fall in love with Nerina Pallot S version of love will tear us apart?

---

Absolutely! Not always a fan of lo-fi covers but that was worthy.
I'll be back when I've finished the whole thing...

soundcloud.com/bafta/normalpeople-podcast
I answered my own question by finding this interview where they answer why Lenny Abrahamson only directed 6 episodes and it basically came down to time and he says they’d still be in post production now if he’d done the full thing.

Up to episode 7 and just want Marianne to tell Connell to fuck off. Totally messing with her head

@fromlittleacorns

Strangely i thought they’d both have Been better off with other people while at university (marianne with the perfectly pleasant first term boyfriend, and connal with helen). Suspect the book may make it clearer that they were good for each other despite many appearances to the contrary.

No ,the book doesn't really make it any clearer. It's the exact same dynamic in the book!!!

Who wants to shag someone "perfectly pleasant" when you're young and lovely?
Obviously, at my age that would be fine!

The mundane mechanical sex with Mr Boring Gareth looked depressing.

I answered my own question by finding this interview where they answer why Lenny Abrahamson only directed 6 episodes and it basically came down to time and he says they’d still be in post production now if he’d done the full thing.

Ah thanks for that, it would be great to see a comparison had he have done the whole 12 episodes. Unlikely to ever happen , but it would make for an interesting watch.

The first 6 were far better than the last 6.

The soundtrack was fabulous

Didn't like the soundtrack at all, it didn't ring true and the breathy covers were awful.

I love joy division.

But I really found the cover of love will tear us part more moving than the original. Maybe it was the context.

I know it was necessary for the plot but how did he afford the car whilst at school?

I was presuming he worked a lot, I think it was shown that he had two jobs at one point in a petrol station and a restaurant? But don't know if that was at school or uni.

In the book it talks about how he worked at the petrol station for 2 years to save up for it and he mainly used it to drive his mum about. His mum got pregnant at 17 with him and never learned to drive. (I did also think that Irish car insurance must be a lot cheaper to allow a 17 year old boy to be able to afford the insurance!)