Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal share their thoughts on where their Normal People characters could be today.
It’s safe to say the beginning of lockdown 2020 wouldn’t have been the same without BBC Three’s Normal People. Millions fell in love with Marianne and Connell, as their on-again-off-again romance unfolded on screen. The ending left viewers heartbroken, with Connell heading to New York and Marianne staying in Ireland, and the couple deciding to part ways.
In an interview with Radio Times, the actors who played Marianne and Connell, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal, shared their thoughts on where their characters could have ended up.
Edgar-Jones said she had questioned whether Marianne may have found herself in an unlikely situation. “I don’t know, I wonder if Marianne is doing something really out of character like she’s working in Ibiza,” she told the publication. The actor went on to suggest maybe she “gets a job somewhere” and perhaps she “hangs out with Lorraine (Connell’s mum) a bit.”
Mescal also thought his character Connell would be abroad. “I remember we talked about that a huge amount when we were filming. I think Connell is in New York, and as much as he should go, I don’t think he’s well equipped for that territory,” he said.
Despite all the speculation as to where each character may have ended up, Sally Rooney, the author of the original novel, may have already shared all there is to know about their future already. In an essay she wrote for The White Review, Rooney seems to explain what happened to Marianne and Connell after we said goodbye to them last year. While they aren’t together, it does seem like they still have feelings for each other.
Although the series may have come to an end, director Lenny Abrahamson keeps us hopeful as he shared with Radio Times that he’d like to revisit the characters for a future show in 10 years time.
“If my knees are up to it, I would still love to do that,” he says. “I mean, it feels like they’re so real and there’s so much richness that sits there having told that story.” Fingers crossed we get that reunion.
Source: Daisy Edgar-Jones & Paul Mescal Shared Where They Think Marianne & Connell Are Now
Should the BBC be making more programmes specifically targeted at older viewers? Responding to a letter accusing the corporation of taking older viewers for granted, the audience services department (on behalf of senior management) said that, in their opinion, the over-50s actually had varied tastes, so were encouraged to enjoy shows made for a “general audience”.
That wasn’t good enough for DCMS chair Julian Knight, who declared that many people feel “the BBC has left them behind”, while, in contrast, writer Charlie Higson has said that the BBC was “forever tying itself in knots about the ageing demographic of its viewers” and stereotyping them by programming gardening shows and documentaries about tanks. It’s also notable that BBC Three is getting an extra £40 million for its terrestrial reboot, with a schedule “aimed at audiences 16-34”, while BBC Four becomes a repeats channel.
But is the viewing audience really that simply – or starkly – divided? I think it’s eminently more sensible to make programming for that so-called “general audience” rather than fretting about demographic targets or second-guessing audience preferences in such an offhand, even patronising, way.
One of the big hits of lockdown, BBC Three’s adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People, might seem a prime example of “yoof” telly, as a coming-of-age drama centring on two teenagers navigating love, sex, family and education. Yet only 5m of the record 16.2m viewers in its first week were from that 16-34 group; the other two-thirds were older viewers.
And that makes perfect sense. You don’t need to be a teenager right now to be able to understand adolescent experience; we’ve all gone through it. Nor do you need to match the characters’ age in order to appreciate a sensitively crafted, beautifully performed piece of drama. If anything, it might be a more powerful watch with an added wistful nostalgia. Certainly, Rooney’s readership wasn’t confined to young adulthood, even as many labelled her a “millennial” voice.