Normal People trailer: BBC releases first look at adaptation of Sally Rooney’s acclaimed novel

Newcomers Daisy Edgar Jones and Paul Mescal portray Marianne and Connell in the show

The first trailer for the BBC’s adaptation of Sally Rooney’s best-selling novel Normal People has been released.

In the new footage, Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar Jones can be seen as the couple at the centre of the story, Connell and Marianne.

The trailer shows a montage of their lives intersecting, with a phone call playing over the top in which Marianne asks Connell if they could try to "do the whole friendship thing".

Rooney’s book follows two teenagers from very different backgrounds embarking on a difficult relationship as they finish school and leave their small town in the west of Ireland for university.

The author has written the screenplay for the upcoming BBC3 adaptation, which will also air on Hulu in the US.

“In Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal, I feel I have found two young actors who can vividly capture Marianne and Connell and bring alive the profound and beautiful relationship at the centre of the story,” said director Lenny Abrahamson, when casting was announced.

First-look pictures from the forthcoming series were unveiled in October.

Normal People will air on BBC3, BBC1 and Hulu in spring 2020.