After the huge success of Sally Rooney’s film Normal People, the adaptation of her first novel will be available on Canal+ from August 25.

Once again, Sally Rooney’s native Ireland becomes the setting for a highly anticipated TV adaptation of her debut novel. Conversations between friends (Original title: Conversations with Friends).

A series with 12 episodes

The 12 episodes of this new series, each of 30 minutes duration, will be aired on August 25 on Canal+.

Like the television adaptation of Rooney’s book Common people In 2020, Conversations between friends It sees director Lenny Abrahamson return with co-director Leanne Welham to Dublin-based Oscar and BAFTA-winning production company Element Pictures.

The story centers on the strange and unexpected relationship between two Dublin students, Frances and Bobby, and married couple Melissa and Nick. The series is described as a complex coming-of-age drama and a very modern love story.

Cork-born actress Alison Oliver attended Irish acting school Lear Academy (of which Ordinary People star Paul Meskel is also a graduate) and plays Frances, a 21-year-old student who overcomes her vulnerabilities while navigating a series of relationships.

Sasha Lane ( American Honey ) plays Bobby, Joe Alvin ( Beloved ) plays Nick and Jemima Kirke ( Girls ) plays Melissa.

Ireland and Dublin as the backdrop

As the case may be Common peopleFilming locations and sets Conversations with friends Rooney’s characters cleverly mirror and contrast the interior landscapes.

The main setting is Dublin, with Trinity College again as guest stars. While a student there, Rooney wrote the book while earning a master’s degree in American literature.

It is the home of Trinity The Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels of the New Testament and one of Ireland’s greatest cultural treasures. The faculty is renowned for its history and architecture, with magnificent Georgian and Victorian buildings, cobbled meadows and gardens. Its library, called the Long Room, contains more than 200,000 ancient books in a barrel vault and is one of the most photographed places in Dublin.

The main characters appear outside its 18th-century front door in the park and the university cricket ground, while Francis spends time studying in the 1960s Berkeley library.

Francis’s flat is in the center of Dublin on Hardwick Street. It can be found in surrounding streets such as Blessington Street, the cultural heart of the city in the Temple Bar district, Lower Abbey Street and in cafes and bars across the city.

The series also features the beautiful coastline of Dublin Bay, with the characters enjoying swimming at the picturesque seapoint. This popular swimming beach is also famous for the Martello Tower from the Napoleonic era.

Journey to Belfast

As a Dublin stunt double, filming also took place in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Stranmillis College and Campbell College used scenes set at Trinity College, and on-screen appearances at the Sweet Afton Bar in Belfast’s Linen Quarter, the Canteen Cafe on Ormeo Road and the famous No Alibis Bookshop on Botanic Ave.

In a scene where Frances watches Nick perform in a play, the production used Belfast’s historic Lyric Theater on Ridgeway Street.

Conversations between friends Rooney’s landmark debut novel, Prev Common people (translated into French) and Beautiful world, where are you?. Common people It became a literary sensation upon release and spawned a 12-episode TV series that launched the careers of Paul Meskell and Daisy Edgar-Jones. The County Mayo native has taken readers and viewers through his work on the Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland’s Wild Coast and the streets of Dublin.

For anyone who wants to explore its fictional world, beautiful filming locations are waiting to be discovered.