Lenny Abrahamson

Conversations with Friends director says it’s Normal People’s “cousin” and addresses Connell and Marianne cameo idea

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

By Patrick Cremona | Radio Times

After playing a huge part in the success of Normal People last year, director Lenny Abrahamson is now turning his attention to another Sally Rooney adaptation for BBC Three, Conversations with Friends.

The series is based on Rooney’s debut novel and explores the relationships between four central characters, including college student Frances and the married author, Nick, with whom she begins an affair.

Normal People

In many ways it is completely distinct from Normal People, but Abrahamson has revealed that there are some clear similarities between the two shows. Continue reading →

Review: “Normal People” Sally Rooney’s love story is a small-screen triumph

~ Michael Stevenson ~ 1 Comment

This BBC/Hulu adaptation of the hit novel about the on-again, off-again relationship between two Irish teenagers captures the beauty and brutality of first love perfectly

Inevitably, people will come to the television adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People in one of two ways: as avid fans of the book, which to a certain demographic and sensibility has become tantamount almost to a sacred text, or as detractors to whom the Irish wunderkind’s work reads as barely more than top flight YA and who have been mystified by the plaudits, awards and – in Normal People’s case – Man Booker longlisting it has garnered.

In the end it won’t matter. The rendering of the on-again-off-again relationship between sixth-form and then university students Marianne and Connell for the small screen, by Rooney herself with Alice Birch, is near-perfect from whichever direction you come at it. Continue reading →