TORONTO — CBC announced Friday the 12-part BBC/Hulu series Normal People will premiere in Canada exclusively on the free CBC Gem streaming service on Wednesday, May 27.
Normal People (12×30) is based on Sally Rooney’s best-selling, coming-of-age novel and stars Daisy Edgar-Jones (War of the Worlds, Cold Feet) and newcomer Paul Mescal. The series recently launched in the U.K. and the U.S. and has been touted as one of the best book-to-series adaptations in recent years.
The series tracks the complicated relationship of Marianne (Edgar-Jones) and Connell (Mescal) from the end of their school days in a small town in the west of Ireland to their undergraduate years at Trinity College. The pair weaves in and out of each other’s lives as they explore the complicated worlds of intimacy and young love.
Adapted by author Sally Rooney alongside writers Alice Birch and Mark O’Rowe, Normal People is an Element Pictures production (The Favourite, The Lobster, Room) for Hulu and BBC Three.
In the news release, CBC also shared some recent viewership results for CBC Gem, saying unique visitors/viewers to the streaming service in March 2020 increased by 43% compared to the previous month, resulting in the highest number of unique visitors/viewers to the streaming service in the past 12 months, according to Comscore audience measurement figures.
In addition, also in March, CBC Gem garnered its highest-ever number of video views since the launch of the service, according to Adobe Analytics, says the release.
