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Just as the UK went into lockdown following the Covid-19 pandemic, the TV series Normal People came to our screens. The series follows the chequered love story of Connell and Marianne from confused teenagers in Sligo in rural Ireland, to young students at Trinity College in Dublin.
Normal People achieved the highest ever viewing figures for a BBC3 programme. The programme is deftly scripted, filmed, and acted, which is a large reason for its success. However, the release of the series also seemed to chime with the public mood. The series explores lust, heartbreak, shame, and frustration. It provides examples of how misunderstandings and difficulties in communication between partners can lead to pain and misery. At a time of huge strain due to the Covid-19 crisis and lockdown, the release of a programme which so movingly explores the difficulties of maintaining a couple relationship seemed serendipitous. Despite specifically exploring young love, many of the struggles and themes of Connell and Marianne's relationship are universal and strikingly familiar to the couples we see in therapy.
Connell is an only child from a single parent family and nothing is known or mentioned about his father. His young mother works as a cleaner for Marianne's family and, while they struggle financially, Connell has a close and loving bond with his mother. Marianne, by contrast, is from a financially affluent family but one of emotional deprivation. Marianne's father, who was physically abusive to her mother, is dead; Marianne's mother is cold and aloof and turns a blind eye to the bullying Marianne suffers at the hands of her brother. These two strikingly different families are almost mirror images of each other—where one is loving but financially deprived, the other is hostile but financially affluent.
At school, Connell is shy but popular with a keen desire to please. He excels academically and in sport, but keeps his sensitivity, intellect, and love of literature secret from his popula