We cannot WAIT for this.

The first look at the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People is finally here. Adapted by Sally Rooney alongside writers Alice Birch and Mark O’Rowe, Normal People is a 12-part drama for BBC Three in partnership with Hulu. It will star Daisy Edgar-Jones (War Of The Worlds, Cold Feet) as Marianne and Paul Mescal in his first television role as Connell, in a modern love story about how two people can profoundly impact each other’s lives. Filming took place in Dublin, Sligo and Italy. Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie McDonald shared the directorial duties. Normal People tracks the tender but complicated relationship of Marianne and Connell from the end of their school days in a small-town west of Ireland to their undergraduate years at Trinity College. At school, he’s well-liked and popular, while she’s lonely, proud and intimidating. But when Connell comes to pick up his mother from her cleaning job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers - one they are determined to conceal. A year later, they’re both studying in Dublin and Marianne has found her feet in a new social world but Connell hangs at the side lines, shy and uncertain. The series will be executive produced by Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Emma Norton and Anna Ferguson for Element Pictures. Sally Rooney and Lenny Abrahamson will also serve as executive producers. Tommy Bulfin and Rose Garnett will executively produce for the BBC. Catherine Magee is the producer of the series.

• Normal People will premiere next year on BBC Three and also air on BBC One.

Photos via the BBC.