normal people one million copies sold sally rooney

One of the biggest challenges that came with adapting Normal People was the pressure and the expectation that came with making it for television, given that the book has been labelled the ‘literary phenomenon of the decade’. Whilst some adaptations are very loyal to the source material - the first season of Game of Thrones, for example - others use the book more as a springboard, like The Stranger, which changed a number of key elements in its Netflix adaptation.īut while it’s fair to say that Normal People is loyal to Sally Rooney’s 2018 novel, the team did experience some challenges during the adaptation process.

There’s no guidebook to adapting novels into TV shows and films. Translating the characters’ inner monologues from book to screenĪdapting the sex scenes and hiring an intimacy directorĪdaptation challenges: ‘We wanted to do the book justice’ Working with Sally Rooney - from coffee catch-ups to accent inspiration

Casting Marianne and Connell: ‘Paul and Daisy felt like the perfect evocation’.The challenges of adapting Normal People: ‘We wanted to do the book justice’.You can also jump to a specific section from the list below: Speaking to BT.com ahead of the show’s launch, the cast and crew of Normal People reveal how they adapted it from New York Times bestseller to a BBC drama. Starring Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne and Paul Mescal as Connell, the adaptation - which has been directed by Oscar nominee Lenny Abrahamson - follows the tender but complicated relationship of two people from their school days to their university years in Dublin.īut what were the challenges of adapting a New York Times bestseller? How were the roles of Marianne and Connell cast so perfectly? How were the sex scenes and inner monologues adapted for television? And how was author Sally Rooney involved in the whole process? It’s arguably the biggest and most highly anticipated book-to-TV adaptation of the year.Īnd there’s not long until die-hard fans of Sally Rooney’s bestselling novel Normal People can watch the 12-part BBC Three series, which is landing as a full box set on BBC iPlayer.

Normal people one million copies sold sally rooney