Normalising consent and co-ordinating intimacy in Normal People (Lenny Abrahamson; Hettie Macdonald, Ireland/UK, BBC Three/RTÉ One/Hulu 2020)

In Sex and the Series (2019), Brey points out that whilst online movements have opened up a public space to talk about scarring sexual encounters, too frequently the stories told are ones where in private women did not have the words to express how they felt. Adapting Brey’s premise towards a study of intimacy on screen, through close textual analysis of Normal People I argue that two strategies are adopted to (audio)visualise intimacy in the adaption: first, it is verbalised through key scenes in which consent is foregrounded and second it is expertly choreographed by intimacy co-ordinator Ita O’Brien.